Springer, Astros beat Rays 7-4 to force Game 7 in ALCS

George Springer and José Altuve keyed a four-run rally in the fifth inning, Framber Valdéz pitched six brilliant innings and the Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays for the third straight game, 7-4 Friday to force a deciding Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.

Houston chased starter Blake Snell in the fifth before Springer hit a go-ahead, two-run single and scored on Altuve’s double. Carlos Correa, who hit a walkoff home run in Thursday night’s 4-3 win, added an RBI single.

The Astros are one win away from their third World Series in four seasons and joining the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series. The Red Sox stunned the New York Yankees to win the ALCS before winning their first World Series in 86 seasons.

Houston Astros pitcher Andre Scrubb (70) is relieved by Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker Jr. during the seventh inning in Game 6 of a baseball American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in San Diego. (AP PhotoAshley Landis)

Otherwise, big league clubs leading 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series are 37-1.

Hoiuston also is trying to become the first team to win a pennant with a losing regular season record (29-31). The Astros have been criticized for their role in a cheating scandal en route to the 2017 title that was uncovered last offseason.

Manuel Margot homered twice and drove in three runs for the Rays, who after blowing the 3-0 series lead remain one win away from the second World Series in franchise history and moved within one loss from joining the 2004 Yankees in ignominy.

Houston Astros pitcher Andre Scrubb walks off after being relieved during the seventh inning in Game 6 of a baseball American League Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in San Diego. (AP PhotoGregory Bull)

Game 7 on Saturday night will feature the pitchers who started and finished Houston’s Game 7 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. will go for the Astros while 36-year-old Charlie Morton is expected to start for the Rays. In the decisive Game 7 in 2017, McCullers started and went 2 1/3 scoreless innings while Morton pitched the final four innings for the victory. Morton signed with Tampa Bay prior to the 2019 season.

It’s also a rematch of Game 2 of this series, won 4-2 by Morton and the Rays.

Valdéz (3-1), who lost the opener of this series 2-1 to Snell (2-2), held the Astros to one run and three hits while striking out nine and walking three in his third career postseason start. He allowed Willy Adames RBI double to left in the second.

Houston Astros pitcher Blake Taylor tags first base ahead of Tampa Bay Rays Randy Arozarena during the seventh inning in Game 6 of a baseball American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in San Diego. (AP PhotoGregory Bull)

Astros closer Ryan Pressly pitched for the third straight day and got three outs for his second save to go with a win in Game 5. He allowed Yoshitomo Tsutsugo's one-out single, then induced Mike Brosseau's game-ending double-play grounder, a call upheld in a video review. Pressly threw nine pitches, all for strikes, raising his three-day total to 39.

The Astros’ 71-year-old skipper, Dusty Baker, who led NL teams for the first 22 seasons of his 23-year managerial career, used some old-school baseball to outfox his younger counterpart, 42-year-old Kevin Cash, to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the fifth. The rally had only one hard-hit ball. The Astros had been frustrated in the first three games when they scalded balls right to fielders.

Snell walked Yuli Gurriel opening the fifth and allowed a single to Aledmys Díaz on his 82nd pitch. Cash, whose team was built around analytics, pulled Snell before he could face the No. 9 batter, catcher Martín Maldonado, and leadoff hitter Springer, who had struck out twice.

Tampa Bay Rays' Mike Zunino breaks his bat after striking against the Houston Astros during the fifth inning in Game 6 of a baseball American League Championship Series, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, in San Diego. (AP PhotoAshley Landis)

Maldonado laid down a sacrifice bunt against Diego Castillo and Springer punched a two-run single to center through a hole in Tampa Bay’s drawn-in infield that was also in a shift. Altuve followed with a double into the left-field corner that brought in Springer, who might have been out if Brandon Lowe had hit the cutoff man.

After Michael Brantley walked, Correa singled to left to bring in Altuve.

Snell allowed two runs and three hits in four-plus innings, struck out four and walked four.

Baker, hired after AJ Hinch was fired following the revelation of the sign-stealing scandal, is the first manager to take five different teams to the playoffs. He has yet to win a World Series as a manager. His San Francisco Giants reached the 2002 Fall Classic before losing in seven games to the Angels. As a player, he helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series in 1981 against the New York Yankees.

Houston’s Kyle Tucker homered off rookie Shane McClanahan leading off the sixth. In the seventh, Michael Brantley hit an RBI single and Tucker a sacrifice fly.

Margot homered off Andre Scrubb leading off the Rays’ seventh and hit a two-run shot off Cristian Javier with two outs in the eighth.

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Astros: McCullers struck out 11 in seven innings in taking the loss in Game 2. He allowed four runs, only one earned, and four hits.

Rays: Morton pitched five scoreless innings in winning Game 2.

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TOKYO (AP) — Share prices have soared recently in Tokyo on hopes that conservative Japanese lawmaker Sanae Takaichi, who was chosen Tuesday to be Japan’s first female prime minister, will double down on market friendly policies, including hefty spending on defense and cheap credit.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 share index climbed close to the symbolically important 50,000 level, gaining 0.7% to 49,517.57. Takaichi, a motorbike and heavy metal enthusiast, prevailed in a lower house parliamentary ballot that gave her 237 votes, above the 233 votes required to win.

Here’s what might be expected from what has been dubbed “Sanaenomics:”

Increases in consumer prices have surpassed the Bank of Japan’s 2% target range at 2.5% to 3%. So the central bank is gradually raising rates from their longstanding level near or below zero. Wages remain near the level they were at 30 years ago, only topping the 1997 average level in 2024 for the first time. Meanwhile, low rates have helped to keep the Japanese yen weak against the dollar, amplifying inflation since much of what Japan consumes is imported.

“I want to focus first on dealing with rising consumer prices,” Takaichi told reporters after she was elected head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month, putting her in line to replace departing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Takaichi has indicated she opposes raising interest rates. The promise of continued cheap credit is one reason share prices have shot higher. But keeping rates low will hinder efforts to curb inflation and to strengthen the Japanese yen.

Echoing many of her predecessors’ promises, Takaichi also has vowed to deliver wage increases, without saying how she intends to do that.

Japan’s population has been shrinking and rapidly aging for years, leading to labor shortages and undermining the country’s potential economic growth.

Although she is an unabashed conservative on most social issues, Takaichi has said she favors giving tax incentives to companies that provide child care facilities to their employees and possible tax breaks for family spending on child care.

It’s unclear what more the government might do under any leader to counter the low birth rate, which partly reflects the financial difficulties of raising and educating children when wages fail to keep up with inflation. It also reflects a corporate culture that is not conducive to a family-friendly work-life balance.

Takaichi is expected to emulate the policies of her late mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He stepped down in 2020 and was assassinated in 2022. His “Abenomics” approach included promises of cash handouts and boosting government spending, despite a national debt that is nearly triple the size of the economy.

Like Abe, she is hawkish on defense. Her political ascent has spurred heavy buying of shares in military-related companies such Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Yaskawa Electric and Japan Steel Works.

Takaichi is bound to seek cordial relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, just as Abe did, and to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with Washington. They are expected to meet later this month.

Initially Takaichi said Japan might want to rethink its pledge of $550 billion to the Trump administration, part of a deal that helped lower U.S. tariffs on imports from Japan. She later said she would honor the agreement, despite public disapproval over handing over Japanese taxpayers’ money to Washington.

Takaichi will be confronting problems that have confounded Japan’s leadership for decades. Any major reforms would face resistance from entrenched vested interests. The tenures of Japanese prime ministers tend to be short and vulnerable to feuding between party factions and the hereditary political fiefdoms that control most seats in parliament.

To win Tuesday’s parliamentary vote, the Liberal Democrats forged an alliance with the Japan Innovation Party, a libertarian opposition group based in Osaka.

But Takaichi likely will need support from lawmakers belonging to other parties in the fractious and splintered opposition to pass legislation. They span the spectrum from the Japan Communist Party on the far left to the Sanseito and others on the extreme right.

Takaya Suzuki, who runs a restaurant and real estate business, supports one of the smaller nationalist-leaning opposition parties called The Conservative Party of Japan, whose policies are similar to Takaichi’s. He admires Trump and says he’s rooting for Takaichi.

But, he added, “Even if she tries her best, it’s going to be tough.”

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

Newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

FILE - Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a press conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

FILE - Japan's Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi, center, arrives at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Aug. 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)