Saturday, October 5. GAME TWO, ALDS. Rays rally in 9th, but fall 3-1

Rays 1, Astros 3

ALDS Record:  0-2 in best of five series.

Attendance:  43,378.  Minute Maid Park.

For the second straight night the Rays faced the best pitchers in baseball and came up short.  No surprise there.  Friday night they were bested by Justin Verlander. Saturday night featured Gerrit Cole in a likely Cy Young year when he went 20-5 with an ERA of 2.50 and a WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) of 0.89.  He also struck out 326, and pitched 212 innings.  He was dominant all year long.  And he was again against the Rays Saturday night going seven and two-thirds, giving up four hits and a walk, but setting a record with 15 strikeouts.

In the ninth against reliever Roberto Osuna the Rays rallied for a single run, but were in a position for even greater damage with two golden opportunities:  bases loaded with no outs and bases loaded with one out.  The game ended with Travis d'Arnaud striking out (and looking bad doing so) and Kevin Kiermaier tapping out softly to first.  It would have been a sweet comeback after having been so totally dominated by Cole for so long, but they weren't up to the task.

Blake Snell, still rehabbing after all and no doubt being pressed into service a little sooner than he should have been because of the situation, did a good job for three and a third, which was when Alex Bregman homered off him.  He was replaced by Diego Castillo for a good fourth and fifth innings, Ryan Yarbrough for a perfect sixth, and then the Rays' best late inning relievers, Nick Anderson and Emilio Pagan, both of whom gave up the winning runs.  Colin Poche got the last out.  All told, it was a good outing for Rays pitching, just not good enough to battle Cole on this particular night.

Some will criticize Rays hitting in this game, but not being able to handle Cole is no disgrace.  Their failure to produce more than a single run in the ninth, however, is on the hitters who should clearly have done better against a couple of journeymen relievers, Osuna and Will Harris.  Despite the heroics of Cole, this game was winnable for the Rays, who simply failed to execute in the clutch.

And so now down two games to none in a best of five series, the Rays must win Monday's game, which is being played at Tropicana Field, a much friendlier venue than Minute Maid Park with its raucous orange and black screamers rooting the Astros on.

The Rays will send Charlie Morton to the mound to face the third of Houston's aces, Zack Greinke, who joined the team in a July trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  His record with the Astros is 8-1 (3.02 ERA) and his full season record is 18-5 (2.93 ERA).  His WHIP was 0.98 and he pitched 208 innings striking out 187.  Morton went 16-6 with a 3.05 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP while striking out 240 over 194 innings.  It's a good matchup.  The Rays will probably be underdogs again, but that seems to suit them just fine.  Once again, don't count the Rays quite yet.