Rays have no answer for Cole in Game 2 loss

HOUSTON -- After an impressive win over the A’s in the American League Wild Card Game, the Rays came into Houston confident that they could match up well against the top-seeded Astros in the Division Series, hoping they could earn at least a split on the road.

The Rays were confident in their pitching staff’s ability, but knew that their offense would have its hands full against Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, the two favorites to win the AL Cy Young Award.

Game	Date	Result	Highlights
Gm 1	Oct. 4	HOU 6, TB 2	Watch
Gm 2	Oct. 5	HOU 3, TB 1	Watch
Gm 3	Oct. 7	TB 10, HOU 3	Watch
Gm 4	Oct. 8	TB 4, HOU 1	Watch
Gm 5	Oct. 10	HOU 6, TB 1	Watch

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After getting “Verlander-ed” on Friday, things didn’t get much easier for the Rays offense on Saturday night against Cole. The Astros right-hander struck out 15 and tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings to lead Houston past Tampa Bay, 3-1, at Minute Maid Park, pushing the Rays into an 0-2 hole in the best-of-five series.

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After Cole exited, the Rays loaded the bases twice off Astros closer Roberto Osuna and had the tying run in scoring position with one out, but Will Harris entered and struck out Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Kiermaier grounded out to first to end the game.

“Those were the best at-bats that we had all series,” said Rays shortstop Willy Adames. “That was an inning that we should’ve made something happen, but the bats weren’t there.”

In the history of best-of-five series, only 10 of 81 teams have come back to win a series after falling behind 0-2. The 2017 Yankees were the last team to accomplish the feat, defeating the Indians in the ALDS. In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, those winning Games 1 and 2 at home have won the series 27 of 30 times (90 percent), leaving the Rays an even bigger hill to climb.

“We’re going to have to have some things go in our favor now going forward,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “But we’re capable of playing a really good game on Monday and see where that takes us.”

For the Rays, it has come down to a lack of offense against two of the elite pitchers in the Majors. Through two games, the Rays offense was held scoreless by Verlander and Cole over 14 2/3 innings. The Rays, who talked about wanting to limit the swings-and-misses against Verlander and Cole, struck out 23 times in the two games against the duo.

The Rays had 43 swings-and-misses -- 33 coming against Cole -- which is the most in a game this season, surpassing the 40 against the D-backs on May 8.

“You can’t strike out that much and expect to win games,” said Rays outfielder Tommy Pham. “Plain and simple.”

There was a lot of uncertainty on what Rays starter Blake Snell was going to be able to give Tampa Bay on Saturday. Snell, the 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner, had an inconsistent regular season and battled through a pair of injuries that limited the left-hander to just six innings over his last three starts of the season.

But despite the limited workload, the Rays were confident Snell would find a second gear in a playoff atmosphere, and the left-hander was able to deliver with a solid outing on Saturday.

“I thought Blake was really good,” Cash said. “We kind of had a sense he was going to be able to get a second gear. It looked like he did tonight. Got us a lot deeper than maybe what I was anticipating.”

Snell needed just eight pitches to get through the first inning and kept the game scoreless through the first three frames. In the fourth inning, however, Snell made his only mistake of the night and Alex Bregman capitalized, sending a 3-2, 96-mph fastball over the inner half of the plate to the Crawford Boxes in left field to give the Astros a 1-0 lead. Snell struck out five and allowed one run over 3 1/3 innings.

After the Rays bullpen escaped a couple of jams, including a fifth-inning first-and-third, nobody-out jam that included a ball hitting a stool in left field that prevented the ball from going into the corner, the Astros finally broke through and added an insurance run in the seventh inning on a Martín Maldonado RBI single.

And with the way Cole was pitching Saturday, a 2-0 deficit was insurmountable. Houston added its final run with three singles off Nick Anderson in the eighth.

“[Cole] was majestic today,” said Adames. “He was mixing the pitches really good. He was throwing the fastball at the top of the zone and he was commanding all the pitches tonight.”

The Rays had no answers for Cole on Saturday and said they tried to get him out of rhythm. The only positive was that Cole reached the 118-pitch mark in the eighth inning, which allowed the Rays to mount one last rally off the Astros bullpen that ultimately fell short.

Now, Tampa Bay is facing an 0-2 deficit, which is something this young group has never experienced. After the Game 2 loss, the Rays found hope in the fact that they’re returning to Tropicana Field for the first time since Sept. 25. They’ll also rely on Charlie Morton, their top free-agent acquisition, to extend their season past Monday.

The challenge doesn’t get any easier, however, as the Rays face Zack Greinke in Monday’s elimination game at Tropicana Field. But the group is still confident they can make this a competitive series.

“We’ve been the underdog the whole year,” Kiermaier said. “No one has counted us to be the favorite. Even in the playoffs, we’ve shocked the world many times. We’re going to try our best to do just that.”