Astros’ Carlos Correa scores Little League home run
Remember when your Little League coach used to tell you over and over again why it was important to run out every fly ball because you never knew what could happen?
Astros shortstop Carlos Correa showed us how the best case scenario would play out.
In the fourth inning of Houston’s game against the Yankees on Sunday, Correa lifted a ball toward the gap in left-center field. Center fielder Brett Gardner and left fielder Garrett Jones converged on the ball with plenty of time for one of them to make a catch, only to watch it drop between the two of them as both players let up at the last possible moment, wary of a collision. Gardner tried to grab the ball off the ground, but slipped and kicked it all the way to the wall.
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Running hard out of the box, Correa was credited with a double and scored on a two-base error charged to Gardner to tie the game 1-1.
“I hit a fly ball, a slider, and I saw it was in the gap. I saw the miscommunication between them, and when the ball dropped I kept running,” Correa said. “… Really exhausted, but it was really fun to be able to tie the game.”
Correa doubled again in the seventh and later scored on an Evan Gattis triple to give Houston a 2-1 lead and the Astros would add another run in the eighth and hold on for a 3-1 win.
Sunday’s Little League home run sure wasn’t the conventional way to show off his skills, but overall it was another strong performance for the 20-year-old phenom, who has wasted no time proving he belongs in the big leagues. He’s hitting .314 with 13 runs scored and 15 RBIs in 20 games for the first-place Astros. If you prefer slightly more advanced statistics, Correa has collected 1.4 wins above replacement, which puts him in a tie for third among AL shortstops at FanGraphs despite having played significantly fewer games than the rest of the players up near the top of the list.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
