HOUSTON -- The Astros had suffered a hard-to-swallow loss the night before, so no one was in the mood to answer for another one.
A day after
\n\nHitters in the 7th inning or later vs @GerritCole45: 0/33 with 19 Ks. \uD83D\uDE31
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) August 23, 2019
Via @ATTSportsNetSW pic.twitter.com/vc4zyeP6J6
“I felt good,” Cole said. “I thought \\[catcher\\] Martin \\[Maldonado\\] and I were working on the same page tonight a lot and we executed a lot of good pitches, had good fastball command, for the most part. We snuck out just enough offense and were able to hold the lead until we kind of extended it and held on at the end.”\n\nScratched from his Aug. 13 start at Chicago just minutes before first pitch when his hamstring tightened, Cole came out convicted and aggressive. He struck out the first two batters he faced and breezed through an 11-pitch first inning. He wound up retiring 21 of the 24 batters he faced and threw 65 of 94 pitches for strikes, including 25 swinging strikes.\n\n“Almost felt like the first inning, he was going to make every single person in the building know he was fine,” Hinch said. “He even wanted to go back out for the eighth inning, which was a good sign. His stuff was really fresh, and he didn’t look the least bit concerned. There was no governor on him. He was letting it go and pitching very effectively. Very impressed with how he approached the game from the very beginning. He was going to set the tone for us after a tough loss.”
Bregman’s career-high-tying 31st homer of the season in the fourth inning put the Astros ahead, 2-0, and