Potential Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole pitched a dominating game, and potential MVP Alex Bregman drove in the game winning RBI with a home run, and the Astros beat the Rays 3-1 to go up 2-0 in their ALDS. The series moves to Tropicana Field on Monday.

Cole went deep in the game, striking out 15 and walking one in 7 2/3 innings. They Rays managed just four hits against him. Bregman also singled keep his series BA at .500 with a .625 OBP.

The Astros called on Roberto Osuna to earn a four-out save. He came in to the eighth inning with two on and two out and struck out Yandy Diaz to end the frame. He got into trouble in the ninth, however, allowing a run, and the Astros had to go to Will Harris to get the final two outs and the save. Osuna is not stranger to long saves; in his five seasons in the majors he recorded 14 long saves (four or more outs recorded), nine percent of his save total. He is tied for seventh in long saves. Raisel Iglesias leads with 30, and Kenley Jansen is second with 27.

By the way, did you know that long saves are way up in the majors? In 2015, there were 116 long saves, and about the same in 2016, 111 long saves. In 2017, that jumped to 160. In 2018, it rose to 172, and in 2019, it rose to 195. This is no longer unusual. Teams call on relievers for longer saves, and they get them to execute. Osuna just could not get the job done last night.

Note, too, that the number of short saves rose also. I suspect that when a team uses the long save strategy, the manager is less likely to leave the closer in when he gets in trouble. So you see what happened in Houston last night, where the long save turns into a less than two out save.