Carlos Correa called his shot before hitting a walk-off home run to win Game 5 of the ALCS at Petco Park in San Diego on Thursday night.
Correa was batting with the bases empty and one out in the bottom of the ninth with his Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Rays tied 3-3. The Astros shortstop got a 1-1 fastball and absolutely smoked it to deep center field to win the game 4-3.
Correa crushed the ball and was celebrating going around the bases.
The 26-year-old said in a postgame interview with TBS’ Lauren Shehadi that he called his shot.
“I told (Jose) Altuve I was going to end it,” Correa said. “And I told Ryan (Pressly) in the dugout I was going to end it. So to be able to do it is a whole different story. I was hyped.”
Correa didn’t even take off running after his home run. Why? “As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone,” he said.
Tampa Bay won the first three games of the series. But Houston battled back with a victory in Game 4 to avoid the sweep, getting help from a good managerial decision. On Thursday, Correa was the hero in the ninth. Game 6 will be on Friday. Houston still needs to win two more games in a row to advance to the World Series.
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