David Freese brings Angels back from the brink in 6-5 victory over Astros

David Freese broke out the shock paddles, rubbed them together, applied them to the chest of the Angels and sent a charge through their system, injecting life into a team that was teetering on the brink of elimination.

The third baseman and former St. Louis Cardinals postseason hero turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead with a two-out, two-run double in the top of the eighth inning Wednesday to lift the Angels to a dramatic 6-5 victory over the Houston Astros in Minute Maid Park.

By winning two of three games in the series, the Angels moved to within 1 1/2 games of the Astros for the second American League wild-card spot with 10 games left.

“It’s the time of year where you’ve got to come through, especially in this close of a race,” Freese said. “If you’re fighting for the playoffs, you’ve got to have big hits. You have to hit your spots when you’re pitching and make plays, and you’ve just got to do the things the right way to get into October. Today helped that.”

A half-inning earlier, the Angels looked as if they would be playoff spectators. They let a 3-2 lead, built on C.J. Cron’s two-run single in the first and Kole Calhoun’s solo homer in the fifth, slip away when George Springer lined a two-out, two-run triple to right field off Angels reliever Trevor Gott for a 4-3 Astros lead.

But Mike Trout led off the eighth with a double to left-center off reliever Will Harris, and after Albert Pujols grounded out to third, David Murphy walked.

Houston Manager A.J. Hinch summoned submarine-throwing right-hander Pat Neshek, who has had great success against right-handed hitters, to face Cron, who flied to center.

Freese grounded out and struck out in his first three at-bats, but he’s a guy the Angels want up in the clutch. He delivered a number of big hits while earning National League championship series and World Series most valuable player honors during the Cardinals’ run to the 2011 championship.

“He’s been through pennant races, and he’s been through the playoffs,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I think he has an understanding to just kind of slow things down and have a good at-bat.”

Freese drove a 2-and-2 slider to the wall in left-center, just beyond the glove of leaping left fielder Colby Rasmus, for the biggest hit of his two-year Angels career. Trout and pinch-runner Collin Cowgill scored for a 5-4 lead.

The hit silenced a crowd of 25,573 that a moment earlier was buzzing with energy and anticipation.

“It’s nice when you hear the crowd because it kind of reminds you to take a breath and relax,” Freese said. “I’m not saying that’s why I got a hit. But when you hear the crowd it kind of hits you to understand the moment and pinpoint your objective.”

Carlos Perez, the catcher who was acquired from the Astros with Wednesday starter Nick Tropeano last November, followed with a run-scoring single to make it 6-4. The insurance run was huge.

Left-hander Cesar Ramos got one out, and right-hander Fernando Salas got two outs in the bottom of the eighth, part of another tag-team relief effort in which the Angels bullpen — without injured setup man Joe Smith — got the final 14 outs.

Closer Huston Street, who threw 32 pitches in Tuesday night’s four-out save, gave up a one-out double to Altuve in the ninth. Springer grounded to first baseman Efren Navarro, who made a nice back-hand stab and beat Springer to the bag.

Up stepped Carlos Correa, who hit a 433-foot double off Street on Tuesday. This time, the rookie phenom stroked a run-scoring single to right to make it 6-5.

Next came Jed Lowrie, whose three-run homer off Street in Anaheim on Sept. 13 keyed a five-run ninth inning in a stunning Houston win.

“I was just thinking about trying to get ahead,” Street said, “to make him have to take good swings on the outer part of the plate.”

A first-pitch fastball was outside, but he got Lowrie to roll over on a changeup and ground to second as Street notched his AL-leading 40th save.

“Correa found the hole on the right side to make it interesting, but I got my guy,” Street said, referring to Lowrie. “We’re still a game and a half back, so we’re not counting anything, but the difference between being 1 1/2 games back and 3 1/2 games back is pretty serious.”

Up next

The Angels are off Thursday. Right-hander Garrett Richards (14-11, 3.73 ERA) will oppose the Seattle Mariners (TBA) at Angel Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. TV: FS West; Radio: 830, 1330.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna