I’ll just cut right to the chase: Gerrit Cole had the Rays backed into a corner the whole game, and by the time they were finally able to get him off the mound, the damage was already done.
Cole, who will likely be competing with his own teammate Justin Verlander for the Cy Young this year, was simply unstoppable. He threw a career-high 118 pitches and went 7 2⁄3 inning into the game, only chased from completing the eighth because of some aggressively long at-bats from the tenacious Rays.
As for those Rays, Cole struck out every single one of them at least once, amassing a total of 15 strikeouts for the game, and giving up only four hits and a single walk.