JENNY DIAL CREECH ON CORREA.
As he has so often in his young career, Carlos Correa comes through in the clutch with the game-winning hit
Just before the top of the ninth inning on Saturday afternoon, while the Astros were warming up to play defense, Carlos Correa told Jose Altuve that they needed to do something.
The Astros were tied with the Yankees 1-1 in Game 2 of the ALCS. They had a 1-0 lead in the series and were heading to New York the next day.
Justin Verlander was pitching a phenomenal game and Correa was determined to get the Astros a win.
“I tell (Altuve,) ‘We got to do this for the team, we got to come through right now in this inning,’ ” Correa said. Altuve’s response? “OK. Let’s do it.” After the Astros’ defense held off the Yankees, the two got to work on their plan.
With one out, Altuve singled to left field.
Correa was up next and battled Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman before slapping the ball to rightcenter field for a double.
“So he got a base hit and I said, ‘OK, I got to do something here, we talked about it,’ ” Correa said. “So 3-2 count, I was just trying to get on top of a fastball and he threw a good fastball to hit and I hit it in the gap.”
Altuve rounded the bases while Correa, watched, worried that he was going to try to make it home.
But the ball bounced in the Astros’ favor, literally, and Altuve scored.
Correa ran to home plate to celebrate with his friend as the Astros won the game and took the 2-0 lead in the series.
“It’s the greatest feeling ever,” Correa said. “Winning is always fun, but winning in the playoffs and such an important spot is even bigger. So really glad he was able to score.”
And Altuve is so glad Correa came up with another big at bat.
So are the rest of the Astros.
‘A big-time player’
Correa had two of the Astros five hits on Saturday. The first — a controversial home run and the second the double that drove in the winning run. He also took a walk in his first at-bat of the day.
“He’s a big-time player,” A.J. Hinch said.
In those big moments, there’s already an expectation that Correa will come through. It’s easy to forget that he’s only 23 and has an entire career ahead of him — one that will surely be decorated with success.
His calm in intense situations is impressive and it fared well for the Astros on Saturday when hits were hard to come by.
Correa’s home run came in the fourth inning. He popped the ball to right field, just over the head of Aaron Judge. A 12-year old fan in the first row put out his glove and the ball hit his glove and toppled into the stands.
The hit was reviewed to see if there was any fan interference.
“I was jogging around the bases and I told Hinch, ‘I ain’t going back to second if they review it,’ ” he joked.
The ruling was in his favor. The home run stood and gave the Astros a run that would prove critical.
Saturday’s strange moments
There were a lot of strange moments in Saturday’s game — the home run that almost wasn’t, a ball stuck in some padding in left-center field that caused some commotion, the Altuve score to end the game that took a moment to process.
But Correa was a constant among all the chaos.
He made plays at shortstop, including one where he caught a pop up over Alex Bregman’s head. He had quality at bats. He came up with big plays when the team needed him to.
On a team with great veteran leadership and experience, Correa doesn’t seem like the young guy. He’s poised, calm and plays smart.
“I can’t say enough about what a great player his is and I think what sticks out to me is how young he us and how poised he is at his age,” Verlander said. “No moment is too big for him and that’s a special quality that gets overlooked sometimes.”
That quality is going to matter more and more as the postseason continues.
It won’t get any easier from here.
The Astros needed the 2-0 lead they earned at home this week. They head to Yankee Stadium to play Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, if necessary.
Calm in the storm
In the first two games — both 2-1 wins — it was obvious that hits are hard to come by and that each team is going to be doing everything it can to survive.
Correa’s calm in the storm is going to be crucial in those big moments on a stage of that magnitude.
Correa will no doubt rise to the occasion and be a steady force for the Astros.
“He’s got a lot of walk-offs in his short career and that’s because he stays calm, he stays in the strike zone,” Hinch said. “That’s why he’s in the middle of our order and in the middle of a lot of things we do well.”
When the Astros needed to get something going on Saturday, they could turn to Correa and expect something to happen.
That’s about as good a quality a baseball player can have.