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McCullers drew inspiration from Jose Fernandez before final out of Game 7

Thomas B. Shea / USA TODAY Sports

Called upon in an unfamiliar relief role to secure a historic win for the Houston Astros on Saturday, Lance McCullers Jr. channeled an old friend to help him do so.

Traditionally a starter for Houston, McCullers was tasked with recording Houston's final 12 outs of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. But before he managed to get Greg Bird to pop up to center field to help his club win its first AL pennant, McCullers admitted he thought back to his late friend Jose Fernandez, the Miami Marlins pitcher who was killed in a boating accident in September 2016.

"I said, 'Hey, show what you got, because Jose would,'" McCullers revealed postgame to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "Dead serious. Stepped off the mound, looked down.

You know, people you loved from your past, they're never off your mind. They're always there, in the back of it."

McCullers and Fernandez became close friends as teenagers after the latter defected from Cuba and arrived in Miami, and the pair even trained together during summers in high school.

Throughout the 2017 season, the Astros pitcher has paid tribute to his fallen friend in a variety of ways, including special ALCS cleats emblazoned with Fernandez's visage, and McCullers fully intends to continue honoring his memory.

"This season wasn't like, 'Oh, I want to pitch well for Jose,'" he told Kepner. "It was more like, 'I want to celebrate the way he loved the game, the way he played the game.' I still love him, and I'm very sure he was watching."

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