Astrosbeat Rays to forceGame7
SANDIEGO » George Springer and José Altuve keyed a four-run rally in the fifth inning, Framber Valdéz 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 go-ahead, two-runsingle 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 beforewinning their first World Series in 86 seasons.
Otherwise, big league clubs leading 3-0 in a best-of-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 (29-31). 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 infranchisehistoryand movedwithin 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 winagainst theLosAngeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. will go for the Astros while 36-year- old Charlie Morton is expected to start for the Rays. In the decisiveGame 7 in2017, McCullers started and went 2 1/3 scoreless innings while Morton pitched the final four innings for the victory. Morton signed with Tampa Bayprior tothe2019season.
It’s also a rematch of Game 2 of this series, won 4-2 byMorton and the Rays.
Valdéz (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. Pressly threw nine pitches, all for strikes, raising his three-day total to 39.
DODGERS 7, BRAVES 3 » Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit a go- ahead, three-run homer off the Atlanta reliever with the same name, Corey Seager homered twice and Los Angeles avoided elimination with a 7- 3 win over the Braves in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series on Friday night.
Smith connected in the sixth against — of all people — Will Smith, the fourth of six Braves pitchers in their bullpen night that started with a couple of postseason firsts by A. J. Minter. Atlanta is looking to get into theWorld Series for thefirst time since 1999.
Mookie Betts got that decisive sixth started with an infield single, and the first-year Dodger and former AL MVP had a running, shoestring catch in right field that turned into an inning- ending double play. His catch-and-throw took an Atlanta run off the board after a replay challenge right before Seager’s first homer.
Game 6 is Saturday afternoon, with a pitching rematch from the series opener: lefty Max Fried for the Braves and righthander Walker Buehler for the Dodgers. Both gave up one run in Game 1, which Atlanta won 5-1 after a four-run ninth.
Blake Treinen, the third of seven Dodgers pitchers and the Game 1 loser in relief, pitched two perfect innings for the win. Inconsistent closer Kenley Jansen struck out the side in a non-save situation to end it.
Betts had a stolen base after his sixth- starting single before Justin Turner’s one- out hard grounder that got Betts caught in a rundown. The Braves then brought in their lefty named Will Smith to face left- handed batter Max Muncy, who drew a walk before the Dodgers’ catcher named Will Smith hit a full- count pitch 404 feet to left-center for a 4-2 lead.
Itwas thefirst time since at least 1961 that a batter homered off a pitcher with the same name in the regular season or postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.