Mound menaces
Cole fans 15 Rays as Astros take 2-0 lead
HOUSTON — A pair of aces dealt the Houston Astros a pair of home wins.
Gerrit Cole carried his splendid September into an outstanding October with a 15-strikeout performance, Alex Bregman showed fans chanting “MVP!” the mighty swing they craved and the Astros survived a wild ninth inning to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 late Saturday night for a 2-0 lead in their American League Division Series.
Houston is one win from reaching the AL Championship Series for the third straight year.
“We’ve got a lot more work to take care of,” Cole said. “There’s a few months this winter that maybe we can sit back and have a drink about it. Right now, it’s on to the next one.”
Cole, 5-0 with a 1.07 ERA in six starts last month, set an Astros record for postseason strikeouts while throwing 7 2/3 scoreless innings to win his franchise-record 17th straight decision. The strikeouts tied for third-most in an MLB postseason game, behind only Bob Gibson’s 17 in the 1968 World Series and Kevin Brown’s 16 in a 1998 National League Division Series.
“He was incredible,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “He had complete command of the entire game.”
Cole’s performance came after fellow ace contender Justin Verlander — he won the AL MVP and Cy Young Award in 2011 and is a contender for the latter this year — pitched seven scoreless innings to lead the Astros to a 6-2 win Friday. In age when teams
are trying all kinds of trends on the mound, the pitching performances were almost throwbacks to another era.
“Whether it’s about the new-age opener or pulling guys third time through (the lineup), most of the people that support that haven’t had Verlander or Cole on their team,” Hinch said. “It’s hard for me to relate to having to pull guys early or wanting to pull guys early when these guys are putting up these kinds of performances. … I’m going to roll with these boys while we have them.”
Cole, who led the majors with 326 strikeouts in the regular season, extended his MLB record with his 10th straight game with at least 10 strikeouts. The Rays were unable to
string anything together off him even as he threw a career-high 118 pitches.
“I don’t think anything he did was surprising,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He’s just that good.”
Said Tampa Bay shortstop Willy Adames: “He was majestic.”
Kevin Kiemaier doubled with two outs in the eighth, and Cole was lifted after putting Adames on with Tampa Bay’s first walk. The right-hander received a standing ovation as he walked off the mound and waved to the crowd just before he reached the dugout. Roberto Osuna took over and struck out Yandy Díaz to end the inning before loading the bases with no outs in the ninth.
Austin Meadows and Tommy Pham hit consecutive singles, Ji-Man Choi walked and Avisaíl Garcia grounded into a forceout that scored Meadows. Osuna walked Brandon Lowe, reloading the bases, and Hinch brought in Will Harris.
Travis d’Arnaud worked the count full, then struck out on a high cutter. Kiermaier grounded to first baseman Yuli Gurriel, who flipped to Harris, who stepped on first for the save.
Tampa Bay is hitting .177 with two extra-base hits in the series. Game 3 is today in Florida.
“I don’t think there’s a real message,” Cash said. “They know what’s at stake.”
Bregman, who hit a career-best 41 home runs in
the regular season, homered off Blake Snell (0-1) leading off the fourth. The shot gave the Astros a home run in 27 straight games, extending a franchise record.
“It’s just lack of a pitch,” Snell said. “I’m still finding it, still trying to get there. I know I can, so that’s why it’s frustrating.”
After Lowe’s error at second gifted Houston two runs in the opener, another error helped in the seventh inning Saturday. Adames bobbled Gurriel’s leadoff grounder, then bounced the throw to first. Carlos Correa followed with a double, and Martín Maldonado blooped a run-scoring single to left.
Correa added a two-out RBI single off Nick Anderson in the eighth for a 3-0 lead.
Charlie Morton, who got the win in the Rays’ wildcard victory Wednesday night in Oakland, will start today against Zack Greinke. Morton pitched for the Astros the past two years and played a big role in their 2017 World Series title, winning Game 7 of the ALCS against the New York Yankees and Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers to give Houston its first championship.
Greinke, acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks at the trade deadline, went 8-1 with a 3.02 ERA in 10 starts after the swap. The run was capped by a gem in his most recent start — the 2011 AL Cy Young Award winner came two outs shy of his first no-hitter on Sept. 25 against the Seattle Mariners.