Carlos Correa knew what Devin Williams was going to throw on his go-ahead single three pitches before the beleaguered reliever threw it.
Williams opened the top of the 10th with a fastball that missed outside by several feet, going to the backstop and sending automatic runner Jose Altuve to third.
That was all Correa needed to see.
“After he yanked the fastball, I knew he was gonna go back to [the changeup],’’ Correa said after Houston scored three runs off Williams in a 5-3, 10-inning win in The Bronx.
The new Astros third baseman was right.
Each of Williams’ next three pitches in the at-bat were changeups.
The first went for a called strike.
Then Correa missed one to get the count to 1-2.
The final pitch of the at-bat was another change — and not a bad one — that Correa smacked into center field for a single that drove in Altuve to give Houston the lead for good.
And the inning only devolved from there for Williams and the Yankees, as Taylor Trammell hit a two-run homer off another Williams changeup.
For Correa, the reasoning was easy — even if it was just the third time in his career he’d faced the right-hander, having homered off him previously. He was well aware that Williams has been a mess lately, and his recent history impacted Correa’s approach.
“You know that and if he’s gonna get beat, he’s gonna get beat with his best pitch, and that’s the changeup,” Correa said. “You know he’s not gonna get beat on a pitch he doesn’t want to use.”
So Correa was able to take the changeup low in the zone and serve it into center.
“He threw me a really good one 1-1,’’ Correa said. “Then, I had to adjust and extend through the zone to get it elevated, and that’s what I did.”
Williams didn’t regret the pitch to Correa.
“I thought Correa made a good piece of hitting on his hit,’’ Williams said. “I was OK with that pitch.”
But then he hung a change to Trammell, who homered.
That pitch did not please Williams.
“The one to Trammell was terrible,’’ Williams said.
Now, the Astros are the latest team to feast off Williams and the Yankees.
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