Astros, Correa again show they have to be put away early - and late

 

Chris Sale struggled through his first inning against the Astros, but he got away unscathed. And when he retired to the first two Houston batters on six pitches to start the second, everyone was prepared for a dominating Sale to lock in and battle Astros ace Justin Verlander for the balance of the game.

And then Carlos Correa dug in.

Houston's shortstop, who had just one hit (.100) in the Division Series against the Indians, managed a seven-pitch walk. By the end of the inning, the Astros had a 2-0 lead, Sale had thrown 50 pitches (28 after two outs) and the Red Sox bullpen was already in motion.

"Really good at-bat, which shouldn't go unnoticed, is the two-out walk that set up, three hitters later when George (Springer) got up with a two-out base hit," said Astros manager A.J. Hinch. "Sale's scuffling, went from a high-pitch-count first inning to what looked like could be a low-pitch-count second inning. Instead, (Correa) battles, gets himself a walk, sets up the next at-bat and (Martin) Maldonado gets hit. (Josh) Reddick works a walk and all of a sudden Springer sets up.

"The at-bat that Correa had was just as significant as any of them."

Correa, who had been battling a back injury, later gave the Astros the lead for good at 3-2 with a two-out single off Joe Kelly  in the sixth — the inning after the Red Sox had tied the game 2-2.

"It felt really good," Correa said. "That hit was huge. Stopped their momentum. Obviously came from scoring two runs the previous inning. It was huge, but most importantly it gives me a lot of confidence, which is key."

The Astros put the game away with two home runs — and four runs — in the ninth inning against Brandon Workman. That was just a continuation of what Houston did to the vaunted Indians bullpen in the Astros' three-game sweep. Houston scored 14 of their 21 runs — with a .404 average and .766 slugging percentage — in the ALDS in the seventh inning or later.

"It's 27 outs ... use all the ones that you can," said Hinch. "Being a tough team to put away is a great characteristic. And we showed again why tack-on runs are really important."

Tough pitching staff: This was the third time in four postseason games that Astros pitchers only allowed three hits. After Justin Verlander exited, relievers Ryan Pressly, Lance McCullers Jr. and Collin McHugh combined for three scoreless innings with one hit, no walks and five strikeouts. Houston also didn't have to use closer Roberto Osuna.

"When you're hard to score against -- it's hard to get three hits in a row against a lot of our pitchers," Hinch said. "Just being able to capitalize on opportunities to get outs and then minimize their opportunities of hitting with runners in scoring position, it was huge. ... When you're hard to score or they're hard to piece hits together against, it's a pretty good feeling."