Astros: What a night! 100th win, Gerrit Cole 300 Ks, clinch playoffs

Last night was a night to remember for the Astros, Gerrit Cole surpasses 300 strikeouts, Houston reaches 100 wins, and they clinch a playoff berth.

The Astros had quite the night of reaching milestones in their 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers, both personal achievements and team accomplishments. Gerrit Cole gets his 302nd strikeout of the season on the same night they shore up a spot in the playoffs with their 100th win. The 38,000+ fans at Minute Maid Park couldn’t have asked for much more.

Cole became the 18th Major League pitcher and third Astro to hurl 300 strikeouts or more in a season. The only other Houston pitchers that have reached that mark is Mike Scott and J.R. Richard.

This is the third straight game Cole has had 10 or more Ks and the 19th time this season. Only four other MLB pitchers in history have had 19 or more games with double-digit strikeouts in a single season. On top of all that, with last night’s victory, he stretched out his Houston record of most wins in a row to 14.

"“It’s really special,” said Cole, who struck out 10 batters in eight innings to give him 302 for the season. “I can’t really put it into words.” via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com"

Yuli Gurriel and Jose Altuve played key roles in last night’s win with their 30th and 29th home runs of the season, respectively. With those two players, along with George Springer, Alex Bregman, and Yordan Alvarez, the Astros have five players with 25 or more homer on the season, another first for the Houston Astros.

Roberto Osuna came in to close out the game in the ninth inning with just a one-run lead. After allowing the first two batters to reach base, he strikes out the next batter and then induces a double play to secure the victory.

That’s Osuna’s 35th save on the season and has become the youngest pitcher at 24 years old to reach 150 career saves, just beating out Craig Kimbrel who reached that goal just a few days short of turning 26.

The icing on the cake for the Astros last night was the team clinching a playoff berth with there 100th win of the season. They are just the sixth team ever to have three straight 100+ win seasons. The magic number to win the AL West Division is now down to two and that could be hit as early as tomorrow night in the game against the Angels.