I've never seen anything like it. I tweeted this out, but - even considering the 2017-2019 postseason runs - Game 5 was the most keister-pucker game I can remember. The Astros actually threw a bullpen day in an elimination game, with all rookies except for Josh James and Ryan Pressly, and lived to see another day. I can't believe what I just watched. Game 6 - Framber vs. Snell - is at 5:07pm Central. Time to sauté a bowl of nails and get to making history.
The Astros are just the 4th team - out of 39 - to go down 0-3 in an LCS and make it to a Game 6. Houston's Win Expectancy in the 9th Inning was just 41.8%. It was the first time in MLB history a team has hit a leadoff home run and a walk-off home run in the same game. Correa called his walk-off home run. Correa, on his bat-flip and round-the-bases celebration:
I lose it every single time. I don't know. I black out. I hit the homer, and it's not prepared.
Click that link to see how Alex Cintron fixed Correa's stance in the middle of the game.
I knew I was going to end it. I could feel my swing was in sync. I could feel my rhythm was good, and I felt like I was going to drive the ball. I believed I could do it.
Bregman got a bunch of guys together to watch Four Days In October prior to Game 5.
Carlos Correa has played in 61 postseason games and has two walk-off homers. Carlos Correa has played in 604 regular season games and has zero walk-off homers. He joins David Ortiz and Bernie Williams as the only players with 2+ postseason walk-off home runs.
SI's Stephanie Apstein: Houston's prophetic player and praying manager.
*Ryan Pressly, who pitched 1.1IP, 1H/0ER, 2K:0BB:
You push our backs up against the wall, we're going to fight you. This team is filled with a bunch of fighters, and I'm happy to be a part of it.
Pressly has gotten 4+ outs in a game 94 times in his career. Houston has only asked him to do it nine times, and only once prior in the postseason (2018 ALDS Game 1).
Now, after two consecutive 4-3 losses, [Tampa's] foothold on that narrow edge has slipped, and the Astros, still hanging on by their fingertips, somehow haven't loosened their grip. The little swings of fortune - the lone hit coming at the perfect time; the defender standing in just the right place to make the incredible play - have begun to go in their favor. The Rays, of course, are still in a great position to take this series. But the Astros, who just a few days ago seemed done, are doing their best not to make it easy.
*George Springer hit a home run on the literal first pitch of the game. It's his 19th postseason home run, tied with Albert Pujols for 4th all-time in MLB history. Correa, on Springer:
The last two games he's been outstanding. He's been driving the ball, giving us huge hits, the big homer yesterday, big homer today to get things started. He is the guy that we look to when you look at that time. He's the leadoff guy. When he gets things going man, we're a scary team.
*Jose Altuve: 1x2, 2BB. It's the 6th postseason 2BB game of his career. Three of them have come in 2020.
*Michael Brantley DH'd in Game 5 after fouling a couple of pitches off the inside of his foot and was 1x4 with a crucial 2RBI single, the 4th multi-RBI postseason game of his career. All have come with Houston, three of them in the 2020 postseason.
*With runners in scoring position, 2020 ALCS:
Tampa: 6x31
Houston: 6x31
They suck, too. Let's go win another Pennant.
*FanGraphs has it 74-26 Rays. FiveThirtyEight says it's 79-21 Rays.
*Shoutout to Josh Reddick, who has a hit in seven of eleven, and five of his last six, postseason games in 2020.
*Five of the seven pitchers the Astros threw in Game 5 had not pitched in the Majors prior to 2020. Their line:
6.2IP, 4H/2ER, 9K:5BB. Ryan Pressly:
I don't have the words to really explain it. All I know is that they're fearless, and I'm so proud of them...I can't really explain how I'm feeling and how to describe how good and how composed they've kept themselves throughout this entire series.
It was the Greezed Lightin'est of games. The five rookie pitchers in a postseason game tied a mark set by the 2013 St. Louis Cardinals, who lost that game.
*Scott Miller: Game 5 involved Carlos Correa, Dusty Baker, Muddy Waters, and Mighty Mouse.
*MLB allowing fans in to Globe Life Park & Feed is unsafe, and unsurprising.
*FiveThirtyEight: If Billy Beane is really done with baseball, he left an indelible mark.
*A Musical Selection:
