Big 5th inning lifts Astros, ties ALCS at 3 games apiece

SAN DIEGO — George Springer and Jose Altuve keyed a four-run rally in the fifth inning, Framber Valdez pitched six brilliant innings and the Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the third straight game, 7-4 Friday to force a deciding Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

Houston chased starter Blake Snell in the fifth before Springer hit a goahead, two-run single and scored on Altuve’s double. Carlos Correa, who hit a walkoff home run in Thursday night’s 4-3 win, added an RBI single.

The Astros are one win away from their third

World Series in four seasons and joining the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series. The Red Sox stunned the New York Yankees to win the ALCS before winning their first World Series in 86 seasons.

Otherwise, big league clubs leading 3-0 in a bestof-seven postseason series are 37-1.

Hoiuston also is trying to become the first team to win a pennant with a losing regular season record (2931). The Astros have been criticized for their role in a cheating scandal en route to the 2017 title that was uncovered last offseason.

Manuel Margot homered twice and drove in three runs for the Rays, who after blowing the 3-0 series lead remain one win away from the second World Series in franchise history and moved within one loss from joining the 2004 Yankees in ignominy.

Game 7 on Saturday night will feature the pitchers who started and finished Houston’s Game 7 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. will go for the Astros while 36year-old Charlie Morton is expected to start for the Rays. In the decisive Game 7 in 2017, McCullers started and went 21⁄ scoreless

3 innings while Morton pitched the final four innings for the victory. Morton signed with Tampa Bay prior to the 2019 season.

It’s also a rematch of Game 2 of this series, won 4-2 by Morton and the

Rays.

Valdez (3-1), who lost the opener of this series 2-1 to Snell (2-2), held the Astros to one run and three hits while striking out nine and walking three in his third career postseason start. He allowed Willy Adames RBI double to left in the second.

Astros closer Ryan Pressly pitched for the third straight day and got three outs for his second save to go with a win in Game 5. He allowed Yoshitomo Tsutsugo’s one-out single, then induced Mike Brosseau’s game-ending double-play grounder, a call upheld in a video review.