Morton, Rays top Astros, avoid elimination

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Kevin Kiermaier hit a goahead, threerun homer as Tampa Bay teed off on Zack Greinke, and the Rays backed another clutch playoff pitching performance by Charlie Morton to beat the Houston Astros 103 Monday and cut their AL Division Series deficit to 21.

Facing the team he helped win the World Series two years ago, Morton allowed one run and three hits while striking out nine over five innings. The 35yearold Morton is 40 with an 0.95 ERA in four career elimination starts, including last week’s wildcard win at Oakland.

Astros manager AJ Hinch announced after the game that Houston will start Justin Verlander on three days of rest in Game 4 in the bestoffive matchup at Tropicana Field on Tuesday. Tampa Bay will use Diego Castillo as an opener.

Kiermaier got the wildcard Rays going with his shot the second inning. JiMan Choi and Brandon Lowe added solo shots off Greinke, who has never won in Tampa Bay, and Willy Adames added a solo blast against Wade Miley in the sixth.

Tampa Bay’s four home runs matched a franchise record for a postseason game. The Rays also went deep four times against the Boston Red Sox during the 2008 AL Championship Series and did it again during last week’s 51 wildcard victory against the Athletics.

Jose Altuve homered for the Astros, who are one victory away from their third straight appearance in the ALCS. It was Altuve’s 10th career postseason home run, tied with Chase Utley for the most by a second baseman in major league history.

Morton, who won 29 games for Houston over two seasons before joining the Rays as a free agent last offseason, departed with an 81 lead. Four relievers finished the combined sevenhitter for the Rays, who have never been swept in a playoff series.

The Astros won the first two games with a pair of dominating pitching performances from Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, who combined to limit the Rays to one un

earned run and five hits with 23 strikeouts over 142⁄3 innings. Houston’s other pitchers have allowed 12 earned runs in 111⁄3 frames, an ERA of 9.53.

With Morton on the mound, and returning home for the first playoff game at Tropicana Field in six years, the Rays were confident they would find a way to get back into the series against Greinke, an 18game winner who was 81 with a 3.02 in 10 starts after being acquired from Arizona at the trade deadline.

Kiermaier’s homer to rightcenter whipped a sellout crowd of 32,251 waving bright yellow rally towels — more than twice the 14,734 the Rays averaged during the regular season — into a frenzy. The party continued when Choi homered with two outs in the third and Lowe led off the fourth with an oppositefield shot that made it 51.

Morton, meanwhile, remained perfect in potential postseason elimination games, including a pair of Game 7 victories during Houston’s 2017 World Series run. He shrugged off yielding Altuve’s firstinning homer to hold the Astros potent lineup in check while his offense was building a comfortable lead.

CARDINALS 5, BRAVES 4, (10): At St. Louis Yadier Molina pushed the St. Louis Cardinals to a deciding Game 5 of the NL Division Series, hitting a tying single in the eighth inning and a winning sacrifice fly in the 10th to beat Atlanta.

Molina slung his bat far into the outfield after his winner, and the packed crowd at Busch Stadium roared with the longtime heart of the franchise.

Game 5 will be Wednesday back in Atlanta. The Cardinals will have ace Jack Flaherty on the mound, and the Braves will go with Mike Foltynewicz.

Kolten Wong led off the St. Louis 10th with a groundrule double against Julio Teheran. After Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked, Wong advanced on Marcell Ozuna’s forceout and easily scampered home on Molina’s fly to the front of the warning track in left field.

Wong threw his hands in the air as he ran toward the plate. Molina rounded first base with his bat in hand, then flung it as the celebration erupted. The 37yearold star catcher discarded his batting helmet as the rest of the Cardinals poured onto the field.

Molina made it 4all with a twoout single in the eighth that went just off the top of the glove of a leaping Freddie Freeman at first.

Ozzie Albies homered and drove in three runs for Atlanta, and Ronald Acuna Jr. had four hits. But the NL East champions went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position, a continuing problem in the postseason over the past two years.

The Braves left the bases loaded in the sixth and seventh. Acuna was stranded on third when Josh Donaldson flied out in the ninth.

Ozuna homered twice for St. Louis, and Goldschmidt also connected. But the NL Central champions were four outs from a second straight difficult loss before Molina delivered down the stretch.

Albies gave Atlanta a 43 lead with a tworun homer off Dakota Hudson in the fifth, capping a threerun rally.

The Braves carried the lead all the way into the eighth, but Goldschmidt doubled and Molina came up with the tying hit off Shane Greene.

Carlos Martinez gave St. Louis a lift after Acuna led off the ninth with a double, retiring three in a row.