Cole shares credit for historic night with Maldonado

HOUSTON – Martín Maldonado has had the best seat in the house for some of the greatest pitching performances in the majors since he was acquired by the Astros at the trade deadline.

He was behind the plate for the Astros’ combined no-hitter in August, so it says quite a bit about Gerrit Cole’s dominant performance Saturday night at Minute Maid Park that Maldonado rated it as the best he has caught.

Maldonado orchestrated a masterpiece on a night Cole set an Astros postseason record with 15 strikeouts over 7 ⅔ scoreless innings to beat the Rays 3-1 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series.

“I think that’s atop (the list of) the game’s I’ve caught,” he said. “I think the opportunity to catch a game like that with a pitcher like that I think it’s super special.”

Cole, who is considered teammate Justin Verlander’s main competition for the AL Cy Young Award this season, became just the seventh pitcher in big league history to record at least 15 strikeouts in a postseason game and the first since Roger Clemens in Game 4 of the 2000 ALCS.

Cole gave special credit to Maldonado, who caught a total of 154 pitches over nine innings from Cole (118), Roberto Osuna (27) and Will Harris (nine).

Osuna relieved Cole with two men on in the eighth and kept Cole’s sheet clean, but Harris had to take over for Osuna after the Rays loaded the bases and cut the deficit to 3-1 with one out in the ninth.

“I thought specifically this evening, Martin was, I mean, as locked in as I’ve ever seen him,” Cole said. “Driving in runs, running the bases, I don’t know how many leverage blocks he had in the last inning, maybe the last couple innings.

“That’s tough to do. I threw 118, Osuna threw 30, Will threw somewhere around 10. That’s 150 pitches and he’s dropping to his knees without any room for error after three hours, you know, with just high-leverage pitches.”

The native of Naguabo, Puerto Rico, delivered the type of performance that would make fellow Boricuas Yadier Molina and Hall of Famer Iván Rodríguez proud.

Three innings after Alex Bregman gave the Astros a 1-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the fourth, Maldonado hit an RBI single to left-center field to go ahead 2-0.

“I didn’t want to strike out in that situation,” he said. “I wanted to do something about it.”

Maldonado was 2-for-3 for his first multi-hit postseason game while also securing just the second postseason RBI of his career.

The offense was definitely appreciated, but Maldonado’s biggest contribution was crouching behind the plate and helping to prepare to face the Rays.

He credited Verlander and fellow catcher Robinson Chirinos. Verlander actually visited with Cole and Maldonado before Game 2 to give him some insights he picked up while throwing seven scoreless innings to win Game 1.

“We meet and we talk as a staff,” Maldonado said. “We meet and we talk pretty much with the other starter, we talk about what he saw yesterday. JV was talking to him about what he saw yesterday. We got some nice feedback. I think we do a pretty good job with the coaching staff, me and Chirinos to try to find a little good game plan to attack the other guys.”

The game plan was more than a little good. It was brilliant, historic even.

Cole induced 33 swing and misses, which is the most in the Statcast era, which is since 2008. He also had five swinging strikeouts over the first two innings, which is tied for the second most in the first two innings of a postseason game during the Statcast era.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Maldonado said. “That guy’s been so consistent all year. It’s really, really hard to say something I haven’t said before about him.”

Cole has definitely earned his raves this season after leading the majors with an Astros franchise record 326 strikeouts while finishing the season with 16-consecutive victories.

After throwing a career-high 118 pitches and joining Hall of Famer Bob Gibson as the only pitchers to strikeout at least 15 and walk one or fewer in a postseason game, Cole shared the praise with his catcher.

“I mean, to be that locked in is pretty special,” Cole said. “He had one of his best nights back there, and it’s a big reason why we won the game. It’s a big reason why we pitched so well tonight.”

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