SMALL BALL

A little offence went a long way for Altuve and the Astros in a 3-1 win over the Indians for a 2-0 stranglehold in their ALDS,

HOUSTON— Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole have been even more brilliant in the playoffs, keeping Cleveland’s powerful offence in check to give the Houston Astros a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.

Cole struck out 12 and walked none, combining with two relievers on Houston’s second straight three-hitter in a 3-1 victory Saturday.

“There’s no doubt we expect to be good, but this is a team effort,” Cole said. “So, we expect to keep our team in the ball game. I don’t know about all the personal accolades or all the dominance or that kind of stuff, but we just want to put up a fight.”

Marwin Gonzalez hit a goahead, two-run double and Alex Bregman homered for the second day in a row.

Next up: 2015 AL Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel will oppose Mike Clevinger in Game 3 of this best-of-five series on Monday in Cleveland.

Francisco Lindor hit a thirdinning homer for AL Central champion Cleveland, who have three runs in the two games. Cleveland is batting .100 (6 for 60) following a regular season in which the Indians ranked second in the majors with a .259 average. Jose Ramirez and former Toronto Blue Jays sluggers Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson have combined to go 1 for 22.

“This is one of the best offences in the league,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said. “They can do damage. They can put long atbats together. (Cole) used all his pitches. He was creative. What else can I say? He was awesome.”

Gonzalez put the Astros ahead in the sixth with the third of his four hits, an opposite-field double to right off usually reliable reliever Andrew Miller.

“With a one-run lead, and with Gonzalez coming up the way he had swung the bat against him prior and Andrew’s history, I felt really good about it,” manager Terry Francona said. “Didn’t work out the way we obviously planned.” Bregman homered against Trevor Bauer in the seventh, and the World Series champions moved within a win of a second straight trip to the AL Championship Series.

Cole allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, join- ing Tom Seaver (1973) as the only pitchers to strike out at least 12 batters without a walk in a post-season game.

Former Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna walked one in a four-out save.

Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco allowed two runs and six hits in 5 1⁄3 innings.

Houston leadoff hitter George Springer went 1 for 4 with a single, ending a streak of five straight post-season games with a home run — one shy of Daniel Murphy’s record.

Now he and the Astros head to Cleveland hoping to set a different kind of mark by reach the championship series in consecutive seasons for the second time in franchise history. Houston made the NLCS in 2004-05.

Osunahas a scoreless streak of 111⁄ innings in the post-season. 3 The streak spans nine games, including six in a row against Cleveland.