Carlos Correa would later say he doesn’t remember the celebration he unleashed after he went yard in the 11th inning to tie the American League Championship Series at one apiece. Considering how sure he was all day of his capacity to deliver exactly what he did, it’s hard to believe him. After all, he kept on telling teammates — prior to and at various stages of Game Two — that he would be the difference maker. Never mind that an injury-riddled campaign limited him to 75 games heading into the playoffs. And forget that he had hitherto gone three of 24 in the postseason. He knew what he wanted to do from the get-go. And he knew how he wanted to do it.
Indeed, Correa was locked in throughout. Even on defense, he kept sharp; if anything, he set up his own walk-off heroics with a superb run and throw to prevent the Yankees from scoring at the top of the sixth inning. And when it came time for him to trek to the box as the first batter in the 11th, he was ready. “I felt like I got this,” he noted. “And I had the right approach against [Yankees reliever J.A. Happ]. I’ve been successful against him going the other way. And that’s what I tried to do. I saw a good pitch down the middle, and I drove the other way.”
And as ready as Correa was for his moment in jumping at a fastball that hung in the middle of the plate, he was also primed for the festivities that followed. He certainly deserved to pump up the 43,359 warm bodies that filled Minute Maid Park; he paused to admire his clincher, casually flicked his bat, rounded the bases with his hand cupped to his ear, and then, close to home, shot his helmet like a basketball to the hoop that his ecstatic teammates represented. Given the gravity of his accomplishment, nothing in the aftermath was forgettable.
In any case, Correa didn’t just win Game Two for the Astros. He positioned them to succeed anew, and he may well have saved the ALCS. Going down zero and two isn’t necessarily fatal, but it’s a significant hole against outstanding frontrunners. Instead, they’re effectively in a best-of-five affair that should favor their star-studded rotation. They cannot but like their chances in Game Three, what with ace Gerrit Cole slated to take to the mound. And even if the rains get in the way, they’ll be more confident with the strides Zack Greinke showed in the opener. The shortstop’s murky memory notwithstanding, everybody else recalls his exploit with pride and figures to be spurred to similar action.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
