Correa called his shot for Astros and took it to cap classic over Yankees
HOUSTON – Carlos Correa arrived at Minute Maid Park on Sunday ready to take his shot. He didn’t just seize the moment in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. He actually predicted it, telling every Astros teammate willing to listen that he would be the hero.
Correa, who loved playing basketball growing up in Puerto Rico before turning his focus on baseball, called his shot before the game, during the game and right until he walked off the Yankees with a home run to right field in the 11th inning.
For good measure, he even capped the night by mimicking the game-winning basketball shots he dreamed of hitting as a child in Puerto Rico.
Correa knew he had evened the ALCS at one game apiece as soon as he drilled J.A. Happ’s first pitch of the 11th inning to right field. He dropped his bat, admired his shot for a split second and then turned toward the dugout to acknowledge the teammates who had reminded him of his promise just a few minutes earlier in the dugout during a pitching change in the top of the inning.
Correa cupped his ear and stared into the dugout, as if to ask, “What were you saying?” As he absorbed the roar from what was left of the sellout crowd of 43,359, he jogged around the bases as his excited teammates sprinted to home plate.
With his teammates huddled around home plate, leaving just enough space for him to step on the plate to cap the 3-2 victory, Correa took off his helmet and mimicked a jump shot in basketball. He brought his hands back and sent a silky shot with his right, burying the helmet into a teammate’s hands right at home plate.
“I always played basketball, always,” said the first Puerto Rican ever picked first overall in the baseball draft. “But obviously basketball in Puerto Rico isn’t very big, so I had to settle on baseball.”
The 2015 American League Rookie of the Year clearly made the right choice. Nonetheless, his form was perfect when he took his shot.
“I hit it,” he said while flashing his smile. “Did you see? It fell right in the middle.”
Correa was in the middle of it all in Game 2, which was a true classic.
He hit an RBI double to give the Astros a 1-0 lead in the second inning, tying Lance Berkman for the most postseason RBI in franchise history at 26 each.
With two Yankees on and two outs in the sixth, Correa also made the defensive play of the game when Brett Gardner’s infield single skipped off second baseman Jose Altuve’s glove. Correa fielded the carom and delivered a perfect throw to catcher Robinson Chirinos to nail DJ LeMahieu for the final out.
Correa jogged off the field wagging his right index finger, mimicking the gesture made famous by former Rockets star Dikembe Mutombo.
The Yankees would have won if LeMahieu had scored. Afterward, Correa told Altuve that he had his back.
“With Altuve, we spoke at the end of the game and I told him I was never going to let him fall and that I’ll always be there to, as we say in English, to pick him up,” Correa said. “I’ll always be there for him, and he’ll always be there for me.”
That was essentially the Astros’ rallying cry Sunday from the time they arrived at the ballpark. They were there to pick each other up.
In Correa’s case, he was comfortable predicting that he would do something special. That’s the first thing he told Altuve when he got to their side of the home clubhouse, which is somewhat of the Latino quarter with locker stalls for the Venezuelan Altuve, the Puerto Rican Correa, Venezuelan Robinson Chirinos, Cubans Yordan Alvarez, Aledmys Diaz and Yuli Gurriel and New Mexico native Alex Bregman on the same row.
Altuve was the first person Correa told that he would do something special before the game even started. The former AL MVP loved his friend’s mindset.
“That’s been the key for us throughout the whole year, especially in a game like today that we have confidence in each other,” Altuve said. “Carlos said before the game today that he was going to do big things. So we cannot do anything other than to believe in him.”
Correa had already done multiple big things to keep the Astros in the contest before his walk-off shot, but his teammates were hungry for more. They needed more, after all.
The chorus began to build in the ninth in Spanish first among some of the Latino players and then in English as well. They all wanted to remind Correa of his promise.
“We all told him,” said Mexican closer Roberto Osuna, who delivered two precious scoreless innings of relief. “It was a group of the Latinos and a group of the Americans too. I tell you, it’s something that we know what type of ballplayers they are and that we are in general.
“So at any moment that could happen. Something inside of us said that it would be Carlos Correa, and he won the game for us.”
Correa appreciated his teammates’ belief in him. Their celebration in the home clubhouse afterward reflected their rush of emotion, creating a raucous atmosphere.
“He was born for October,” Bregman said. “He’s unbelievable. He’s been busting his (butt) working on his swing, and it looked pretty darn good tonight.”
Bregman only needed to hear the sound of the bat making contact to immediately start running toward home plate.
“He knew he was going to end it during the (Yankees) pitching change (in the top of the 11th),” Bregman said. “When Josh James came in, he told us and he did it.”
Correa knew. His teammates knew. Now the Astros head to Yankee Stadium for Games 3 to 5 with the best-of-7 series tied at one game apiece.
“In the last inning, everybody was telling me, ‘You’re going to hit it. You’re going to hit a home run,’” Correa said. “Alex Cintron, our hitting coach, said, ‘Hey, look for a fast one in the middle and take it deep.’
“So, you know, when I was running the bases I wasn’t even thinking, to be honest. I was just enjoying the moment, listening to the fans and how loud they were. It was a special moment.”
Correa took his shot. As another famous Puerto Rican said in his iconic musical, Correa was not throwing away his shot.
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