Breaking down Gerrit Cole’s historic winning streak heading into World Series Game 1

October 5 vs. Tampa Bay Rays, ALDS Game 2

Following a seven-inning, one-hit gem from Justin Verlander in the Astros’ Game 1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS, Gerrit Cole wanted to keep up and he did so in grand style in Game 2. He recorded a franchise-best 15 strikeouts in 7 2/3 scoreless innings, giving up just four hits and one walk. He extended his record of consecutive games with double-digit strikeouts to 10 and racked up 33 swings and misses on Tampa Bay hitters, the most in a postseason game since Major League Baseball started tracking the stat 11 years ago. The win put Houston within one game of going to the ALCS for the third straight year but they’d need another gem from Cole to get there.

W/L: 1-0  
ERA: 0.00
K: 15

October 10 vs. Tampa Bay Rays, ALDS Game 5

After Zach Greinke failed to get a win in Game 3 and the Rays getting to Verlander early in Game 4, the fate of the season rested with Gerrit Cole and he was certainly up to the task. Given a four-run lead in the first inning, some of the pressure came off but Cole went out and threw a masterpiece anyway. He surrendered just two hits and one run in eight strong innings, striking out 10 while walking just two, winning his 18th straight decision, allowing the Astros to move on to a highly-anticipated showdown with the New York Yankees. A crazy stat came out of this game as well. In the third inning, Cole didn’t record a strikeout, which just happens from time to time. Not a big deal, right? Well, it was for Cole as this was the first inning since August 1 that he didn’t get at least one in an inning. That’s a span of 73 innings. The longest streak in the Expansion Era (1961) before that? Forty. Cole nearly doubled the previous record.

W/L: 2-0  
ERA: 0.57
K: 25

October 15 @ New York Yankees, ALCS Game 3

Facing the New York Yankees, the team that originally drafted him out of high school in 2008 (he chose to go to UCLA instead), Gerrit Cole took the challenge of pitching a postseason game in Yankee Stadium head-on and once again delivered, even without having his best stuff. Cole walked five batters over seven innings in Game 3 of the ALCS and his streak of double-digit strikeout games ended as well with him only striking out seven. And he still never gave up a run. With the fastball not working like it usually does, Cole had to rely on the breaking pitches and recorded six of the seven punchouts that way. He gave up just four hits and got the outs when he needed them the most, leading Houston to a 4-1 victory and a 2-1 series lead. Cole was on tap to pitch Game 7 but Jose Altuve took care of things with the Game 6 walkoff, which sets up an amazing World Series Game 1 matchup between Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer.

W/L: 3-0  
ERA: 0.40
K: 32

Will Gerrit Cole continue his winning ways in the 2019 World Series? Please feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.