Correa’s walkoff HR evens series
Correa’s homer in 11th evens series after shortstop’s earlier heroics
One big, perfect swing.
One huge home run.
And, finally, it was all over.
Carlos Correa blasted a rocket into the right-field stands as midnight approached inside Minute Maid Park. The Astros downed the New York Yankees 3-2 in 11 innings in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. And thanks to Correa’s heroics late Sunday night, the series is tied 1-1 and the Astros still have serious life in 2019.
After the embarrassment of a 7-0 shutout in Game 1 and a looming three-game trip to Yankee Stadium, Game 2 was a near must-win for the Astros before the first pitch.
Correa broke through in the second, handing the home team a 1-0 lead.
Yankees lefthander James Paxton kept falling behind and couldn’t last. But Aaron Boone’s initial bullpen move paid off big time, as third-inning reliever Chad Green
pitched New York out of early trouble, then threw two innings of scoreless, hitless ball.
Aaron Judge versus Jose Altuve was a big deal in the 2017 ALCS. In the fourth inning of Game 2 on Sunday night, Judge made Verlander pay for a walk to DJ LeMahieu that followed an 0-2 beginning to LeMahieu’s at-bat. Judge blasted an 0-1 slider into the Astros’ bullpen, handing the Yanks a 2-1 lead that lasted as long as Green was in the game.
Then Boone changed pitchers again, turning to Adam Ottavino, and the Astros broke through again.
George Springer destroyed the first pitch he saw, an 81 mph slider, and Game 2 was tied at 2 while Springer looked into the Astros’ dugout and pumped his fist.
The fifth got messy for New York and scary for the Astros. A line-drive foul ball by Michael Brantley left his teammates with hands on their heads in the home dugout, after a paramedic supervisor was hit in the head.
But even with Minute Maid Park echoing MVP chants for Alex Bregman, the Astros again failed to fully live up to the moment. They were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and had left six men on base by the time the sixth inning arrived. So the team turned to Verlander again, asking the veteran ace to hold off the Yankees for three more outs.
Correa came through for the second time. An Altuve bobble turned into Correa erasing LeMahieu sliding across home plate as the potential go-ahead run. Verlander was at 99 pitches and holding on. But he had held on and it was the Yankees’ turn to come up short in the top of the sixth.
Verlander’s 109th pitch ended his night. A five-pitch walk to ex-Astro Cameron Maybin brought on Will Harris, who struck out Didi Gregorius in the seventh.
Verlander in Game 2: 62⁄33 innings, five hits, two runs, seven strikeouts. And the perfect opportunity for the Astros to fly north with a Game 2 W and 1-1 series tie.
Their starter had kept them in the game. The initial relief had been sharp. The stadium only became more electric and tense, connecting Game 2 in 2019 with Game 2 in 2017, which feat ured 124 pitches and nine innings of pure brilliance from Verlander, and an instantly memorable Correa walk-off.
Closer Roberto Osuna was asked to record five outs. He quickly locked down the initial two.
Zack Britton quieted the Astros in the eighth — except for a highly frustrated Yordan Alvarez cracking his bat against the dirt after a strikeout that he chased.
Osuna returned for three more outs in the ninth. He nailed down all three, earning a standing ovation from a stadium that hasn’t always applauded No. 54.
Then it was Aroldis Chapman versus Correa to open the bottom of the ninth, as Game 2 in 2019 began to mirror Game 2 in ’17 more and more.
Tight. Buzzing. Always one pitch away from the series wildly swinging one team’s way.
Chapman walked pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz, then struck out Springer. The 10th inning had arrived, almost four hours after the first began.
Josh Reddick entered the game in right field. Joe Smith took over on the mound. The top rows of Minute Maid Park remained filled with orange and blue. Someone was going to win, eventually. And the winner would either be back in the series or have total control of the ALCS.
CC Sabathia, who is 39-yearsold and has thrown in 561 regular-season games, threw five pitches to get Brantley out, then handed the ball to yet another Yankees reliever.
Two on for Alvarez. Nothing. Two still on for Yuli Gurriel. The same.
The 10th became the 11th and the home team was 1-for-10 with RISP and had left 10 men on base.
Two on for the Yankees in the top of the 11th. Josh James got the swinging K after the first one was miscalled.
Five and a halfinnings after Springer tied it at 2 with a homer in the fifth, zeroes lined the board.
Then Correa walked to the plate.
One swing. One huge home run. Ballgame.
Correa walked off Game 2 of the ALCS against the Yankees.
Again.