Astros win third in a row against Rays, force ALCS Game 7
George Springer and José Altuve keyed a fourrun 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 in San Diego.
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.
Game 7 tonight will feature the pitchers who started and finished Houston’s Game 7 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Righthander Lance McCullers Jr. will go for the Astros while 36-year-old Charlie Morton is expected to start for the Rays. In the decisive Game 7 in 2017, McCullers started and went 2 1/3 scoreless innings while Morton pitched the final four innings for the victory. Morton signed with Tampa Bay prior to the 2019 season.Los Angeles
It’s also a rematch of Game 2 of this series, won 4-2 by Morton and the Rays.
Valdéz (3-1), who lost the opener of this series 2-1 to Snell (2-2), held the Rays 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.
A stros closer Rya n 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.
EX-ANGELS EMPLOYEE IN
DICTED INCONNECTIONWITH SKAGGS DEATH >> Former Angels employee Eric Kay has been indicted on two counts of federal drug crimes in connection to the death of Tyler Skaggs last year.
The indictment charges Kay with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance containing fentanyl, and also with distribution of a controlled substance containing fentanyl resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
The second charge carries a potential sentence of 20 years to life in federal prison.
The indictment was filed on Friday morning in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Skaggs was found dead in his Texas hotel room on July 1, 2019, and an autopsy later revealed fentanyl and oxycodone in his system. Fentanyl is a dangerous opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Kay, who had worked for more than 20 years in the team’s public relations department, is charged with supply i n g t he d a n gerous opioids to Skaggs. According to the indictment, K ay “and others” had been supply ing the drugs “beginning in or before 2017.”
There was no immediate comment from Kay’s Orange County attorney, Michael Molfetta.
Kay has not worked for the Angels since last year.
In August, Kay was charged in connection to the death, and he surrendered to authorities in Texas. Since then, Kay and federal authorities had delayed the proceedings twice to pursue plea agreements, according to court documents.
At the time of the charge in August, U. S. Attorney Nealy Cox said in a statement that the charges against Kay should serve as a warning to the dangers of fentanyl.
“Tyler Skaggs’ overdose – coming, as it did, in the midst of an ascendant baseball career – should be a wake- up call: No one is immune from this deadly drug, whether sold as a powder or hidden inside an innocuous-looking tablet,” Cox said. “Suppressing the spread of fentanyl is a priority for the Department of Justice.”
The complaint accompanies the charged detailed phone records of apparent drug transactions between Kay and Skaggs. There was also evidence of Kay meeting Skaggs in his hotel room the night before he was found dead.