Houston wins 3-1

Cole allowed more hits than Verlander, but made up for that with 15 Ks. The Rays have not scored against Houston’s starters.

I don’t know if it is going to get any easier for the Rays when they go home to Tampa. The next guy they have to face is Zack Greinke, who was 18-5 this year and is probably headed for the HoF with a lifetime record of 205-123. Consider this: Greinke started his career 21-35, so since then he’s 184-88. In the period from 2008 to the present, Greinke is second in wins (behind Verlander), second in W-L percentage (behind Kershaw), and third in ERA among pitchers with 100 wins or more (behind only Kershaw and Chris Sale, whose poor 2019 year raised his lifetime ERA from 2.89 to 3.03).