HOUSTON – Gerrit Cole carried his splendid September into an outstanding October, Alex Bregman handed fans chanting "MVP" the mighty swing they craved and the Houston Astros survived a wild ninth inning to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 on Saturday night for a 2-0 lead in the AL Division Series.
Cole, 5-0 with a 1.07 ERA in six starts last month, set an Astros postseason record with 15 strikeouts in 7⅔ scoreless innings to win his franchise-record 17th straight decision. The 15 strikeouts tied for third-most in a postseason game, the highest total since Roger Clemens had 15 in the 2000 AL Championship Series for the New York Yankees against Seattle.
Cole, who led the majors with 326 strikeouts in the regular season, extended his major league record with his 10th straight game with at least 10 K's. The Rays were unable to string anything together against him on a night he induced 33 swings and misses — the most since MLB started tracking the stat in 2008 — and threw a career-high 118 pitches.
Bregman hit a fourth-inning home run off Blake Snell, and Houston added single runs in the seventh and eighth innings. But Tampa Bay loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth off Astros closer Roberto Osuna, who relieved Cole with two out in the eighth.
Avisail Garcia hit an RBI groundout, and the Rays reloaded the bases when Brandon Lowe walked. Will Harris came in for Osuna and finished off the victory, striking out Travis d'Arnaud and retiring Kevin Kiermaier on a groundout to send the Astros to Florida up 2-0.
Snell, last year's AL Cy Young Award winner, lasted 3⅓ innings, giving up the one run on four hits while striking out five and walking none.
