Astros shut down Rays, secure place in ALCS
Hardened Houston reach ALCS for third straight year, meet Yankees in showdown
>> HOUSTON: Houston pitcher Gerrit Cole tossed a post-season gem and the Astros offence exploded early to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 on Thursday and set up a heavyweight Major League Baseball play-off clash with the New York Yankees.
Cole, given a 4-0 cushion in the first inning, dominated the Rays through the eighth as the Astros sealed a 3-2 victory in the bestof-five American League Division Series.
Now the Astros, winners of a stunning 107 regular-season games, will take on the 103-win Yankees in the American League Championship Series with a World Series berth on the line.
Game one of the best-of-seven showdown is today (tomorrow Thai time) in Houston.
Cole retired the first three batters he faced to open the game, notching two strikeouts.
The Astros promptly seized a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the frame when George Springer led off with a line drive single. Michael Brantley followed up with a single of his own, putting runners on the corners with no outs.
Jose Altuve then lined a single to right field to score Springer and keep runners on the corners.
Alex Bregman’s double scored both Brantley and Altuve with a double to right-centre, and Yuli Gurriel’s hit scored Bregman.
The Rays, who had won two straight to force a deciding game five, pulled a run back with Eric Sogard’s homer off Cole in the second inning.
But the Rays couldn’t make any more headway and Brantley and Altuve delivered back-to-back home runs in the eighth to complete the scoring.
“That was helpful for sure,” Cole said of the early offensive support. “It just allows you to continue to stay creative through the early part of the game. And it just kind of allows you to just kind of roll that first pitch over from Sogard off your shoulder a little bit.
“And it’s always good to get the crowd engaged early,” he added.
Houston reached the ALCS for the third straight year as they seek another World Series title to go with the one they captured in 2017.
They lost to eventual World Champions Boston in the ALCS last year.
The Yankees, who swept the Minnesota Twins in three games in their division series, are in pursuit of a record-extending 28th World Series crown.
“The Yankees, obviously, are a formidable squad,” Cole said. “The AL East, we all know what that division poses with the reigning World Champions, and obviously the Tampa Bay Rays hanging in there.
“They’ve got a lot of talent, a boatload of talent. It’s just kind of how they’re always made. They’re very stoic. They grind out a lot of at-bats. It’s going to be a tough match-up.”
But Cole said the challenge posed by the underdogs Rays had hardened the Astros.
“What a classy series, man. They grinded so hard,” Cole said of the Rays. “We got hit in the face twice and we needed the second one to respond the way we wanted to respond, and even then they still were trading blows with us tonight.
“So when you advance you’re elated, you have a champagne shower, and you think about all the hard work you’ve put in. But at the same time your opponent has done the same thing.”