HOUSTON _ This time, the Rays got Cole'd.
Or, more appropriately, K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-K-Kole'd.
Striking out 15 times against Astros starter Gerrit Cole was clear evidence the Rays couldn't do much right Saturday night.
Combined with a couple things the Rays did wrong, the result was a 3-1 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the division series, and a daunting task ahead.
The teams are off Sunday, with the best-of-five series resuming, and potentially ending, with a 1:05 p.m. Game 3 Monday at Tropicana Field. Charlie Morton will start for the Rays with their season on the brink, Zack Greinke for the Astros.
Of the 50 teams that have lost the first two games of a best-of-five series on the road, only seven have come back to win.
Saturday's game looked initially a lot like Friday's series opener, with the two starters dueling through the early innings. Also similar, the Rays pitcher made the first mistake, as Blake Snell gave up a homer to Astros MVP candidate Alex Bregman leading off the fourth.
The Rays played some dazzling defense, but an error by shortstop Willy Adames led to another Houston run in the seventh.
Yuli Gurriel reached on the errant throw, went to third on Carlos Correa's double off usual Rays closer Emilio Pagan and scored on a one-out bloop single that dropped in front of left fielder Austin Meadows.
The Astros added a run in the eighth by rapping three singles off Nick Anderson.
The Rays did make it interesting and tense for the sellout crowd of 43,376, by scoring in the ninth off Houston closer Roberto Osuna. Meadows led off with a single, Tommy Pham followed with another, and Ji-Man Choi walked to load the bases. An Avisail Garcia grounder to third got one run home, with a force out at second. Brandon Lowe walked to re-load the bases and end Osuna's night. But Will Harris struck out Travis d'Arnaud and got Kevin Kiermaier to ground out to end it.
After Friday's loss to Astros ace Justin Verlander, Rays manager Kevin Cash said they got "Verlander-ed," which was already on a T-shirt for sale online via breaking.com on Saturday.
The way Cole pitched, they may want to consider a series.
Cole had a spectacular regular season, going 20-5 with a majors-most 326 strikeouts, the most since Randy Johnson fanned 334 in 2002 and by an AL pitcher since Nolan Ryan had 341 in 1977.
Saturday, he was dominant from the start until leaving with two eights in the eighth. Fourteen of his 15 strikeouts were swinging, with 33 swings-and-misses overall. He got every hitter in the Rays order to strike out at least once. The only batter he walked was his last one.
Cole scattered three singles through the first seven innings. The only threat the Rays really mounted came in the eighth when Kiermaier, who had been 0 for 9 in the postseason, doubled with two outs and Adames drew a walk. That ended Cole's night with a career-high 118 pitches.
Snell had a lot of reasons to be excited about making his first career postseason start.
Being drafted and developed by the Rays. Earning national acclaim for his 2018 Cy Young Award season. Signing a five-year, $50 million contract to potentially stick around longer. Navigating a difficult season marked by injuries, including late-July elbow surgery, and inconsistencies. Relishing the chance to show he is back to top form.
"Yeah, it's exciting for me," Snell said Friday. "I had an up-and-down season. I had a lot to go through and battle. And just to be here and be part of it is very exciting for me, and it allows me to prove a lot of things to myself before the season's over, whenever that is."
Snell showed well in working into the fourth Saturday, though leaving one batter after his sole costly mistake, the 3-2 fastball Bregman launched over the left-centerfield fence that put the Rays behind 1-0.
Snell zipped through the first, with three quick outs on 10 pitches. He got into trouble in the second allowing two one-out singles then out of it by striking out Correa and getting Tampa native Kyle Tucker on a fly to deep center. He allowed a one-out double to Jose Altuve in third, but escaped when catcher d'Arnaud hustled after an inning-ending strike three bounced away and threw to first to just beat Michael Brantley, even more important since Snell didn't cover home.
And he started the fourth well, getting ahead of MVP candidate Bregman 0-2, but three straight balls, then a foul ball, led to the 96 mph fastball that soared out of the park. Snell was done after striking out Yordan Alvarez, throwing 58 pitches, allowing four hits, striking out five.
Diego Castillo and Ryan Yarbrough followed with some tremendous relief work. Castillo finished the fourth and worked the fifth, and Yarbrough the sixth.
The Rays played some dazzling defense.
Choi made a diving stop, and a good throw to Castillo covering first, in the fourth. Castillo came off the mound quickly to get Correa out at first to end the inning. Adames snagged a hard grounder, touched second and fired to first to double up Altuve to end the fifth, helping Castillo out of a jam where he had runners on the corners with one out.
