Correa powers Astros past A’s 11-6 to clinch ALDS

Houston will play either the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay Rays in the best-of-seven ALCS in San Diego. The Rays lead their ALDS 2-1.

The Astros and A’s combined for 24 homers — 12 each — the most in a post-season series of five games or less.

Houston clinched at Dodger Stadium, where it won the 2017 World Series in seven games. The Astros’ sign-stealing scheme used during their title run was revealed last year by former teammate and current A’s pitcher Mike Fiers, who didn’t pitch in this post-season series.

The scandal led to season-long suspensions of Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch, who both were fired. Boston manager Alex Cora and Mets manager Carlos Beltrán also lost their jobs as fallout their roles with the ’17 Astros, and Houston still draws ire of other players and fans.

Correa said outside opinions did nothing to motivate the team.

“We’re motivated because we want to win and we want to bring another championship to the city of Houston,” he said. “We know what it feels like and we want to have that feeling again.”

Houston’s star-loaded lineup did little during the regular season to quiet criticism that the club could only hit when it was stealing signs. The Astros ranked 20th in the majors with a .240 average and 14th with 279 runs.

The slump continued through the wild-card round before Houston turned Dodger Stadium into a launching pad against Oakland. The team batted .322 in the ALDS, with Correa, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker each batting over .400, and George Springer at .389.

“We never gave up because we had a down year offensively,” Correa said. “We kept going to the cage. That helped us in this series.”

Much of that damage came against Oakland’s vaunted bullpen. A’s relievers combined for a 6.27 ERA in the series, including six earned runs Thursday.

Facing elimination for the fourth time this post-season, Oakland’s Ramón Laureano hit a pair of homers, including a three-run shot in the second that gave the West champion A’s the early lead for the fourth straight game.

Houston starter Zack Greinke held up two fingers facing Laureano and catcher Martín Maldonado before Laureano homered 440 feet to left for a 3-0 lead. It might have appeared that Greinke was signalling his pitch, although he has at times used a hand signal to switch sign sets mid-inning.

It was the first post-season homer Greinke allowed since last year’s Game 7 of the World Series against Washington, when Anthony Rendon’s solo shot began the Nationals’ comeback.

Laureano’s leadoff homer in the fifth cut Oakland’s deficit to 5-4, but the A’s would get no closer.

Frankie Montas couldn’t withstand Houston’s onslaught in the fourth, when the Astros sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five. Altuve led off with a walk and scored on Brantley’s homer to pull the Astros to 3-2. Bregman and Tucker had back-to-back singles and scored on Correa’s shot to left that he stood and admired, giving Houston the lead for good, 5-3.

Brantley added a solo shot in the fifth and Altuve had a two-run blast in the seventh that extended the Astros’ lead to 11-4.

Houston’s Cristian Javier got the victory in relief. He retired five in a row before giving up back-to-back, two-out singles to Robbie Grossman and Sean Murphy in the seventh. Marcus Semien — a free agent-to-be playing perhaps his final game with Oakland — flied out to left and Tucker backed up to the wall to make the catch for the third out.

No A’s starter pitched beyond the fifth in the series. Loser Montas gave up five runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked one.

Greinke, who had experienced arm soreness that kept him from starting Game 3, allowed four runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.

GREAT CATCH

With Oakland trailing 3-0, Josh Reddick robbed Matt Olson with a spectacular catch in right. Reddick reached over the low wall to snag the ball and fell on his backside, holding up his glove. The Astros bullpen had a front-row seat to the catch and cheered; Greinke let out a visible sigh of relief on the mound.

BACK TO THE ALCS

The Astros became the third team in AL history since 1969 to reach four straight AL Championship Series. The Yankees did so from 1998-2001 and the A’s went to the ALCS five times from 1971-75.

GOING LONG

Brantley, Springer and Correa all have multi-homer games this post-season, making Houston the first team since the 2003 Chicago Cubs — also managed by Baker — to have three different players register multi-homer games in the same post-season.

DAY-O

The A’s played their 10th straight day game dating to a doubleheader on Sept. 26. The last time they played over nine consecutive day games was April 23-May 8, 1949, when they had 16 in a row, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

All four games in the neutral-site series were played during the day. After the first three games in the 90s and 80s, the temperature cooled to 75 degrees for Game 4.

UP NEXT

Athletics: Host the Milwaukee Brewers in their spring training opener on Feb. 27.

Astros: Travel to San Diego for the AL Championship Series.

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Beth Harris, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Correa powers Astros past A’s 11-6 to clinch ALDS

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