Astros 2, Rays 1; Jarred Cosart Loses No-Hitter In Seventh In Spectacular Debut

Final line: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 SO

On Friday night Jarred Cosart made his much anticipated major league debut with the Astros.

Before the game it was determined that tonight's start would only be a spot start for Cosart, according to Brian T. Smith. Porter had these words for Cosart:

"I said to him, ‘You don’t worry about all of the other things that are out of your control. The one thing that you have control over is to go out (Friday) and pitch a great ballgame and let us continue to make the decisions that need to be made moving forward.’ "

Cosart retired the first nine batters he faced. In the fourth he walked Desmond Jennings to start the inning, then retired the next three batters via a strikeout, ground out and a fly out. In the fifth inning he walked Wil Myers with one out then got Matt Joyce to ground into an inning ending double play. In the sixth Cosart was helped out by some spectacular from The Human Highlight Reel, AKA Brandon Barnes:

If you hadn't guessed by now, Cosart was throwing a no-hitter heading into the seventh inning. He got Luke Scott to ground out for the first out but then allowed a hit to Ben Zobrist that was just out of the reach of Jose Altuve:

Cosart responded by getting Evan Longoria to ground into a double play to end the inning.

In the eighth inning Cosart allowed another hit and then followed that up with another double play, this time victimizing Wil Myers. Matt Joyce then grounded out to end the inning.

At this point every fan in Houston was screaming this at Bo Porter through their television:

Bo Porter abided fans wishes and allowed Cosart to start the ninth. Cosart struggled to find the strike zone walking Kelly Johnson to start the inning. After Corporan headed to the mound for a discussion, Bo Porter came out to replaced Cosart with Jose Veras. And so ended his spectacular debut.

What we saw out of Cosart was his potential to dominate a game. He's being sent down because he hasn't fully harnessed that potential. Tonight was an excellent start though. The future is almost here.

Veras came in and got Yunel Escobar to ground into yet another Astros double play. Desmong Jennings then hit into a routine ground out to shortstop to end....nope, Brett Wallace couldn't pick the throw at first so the Rays were still alive. Luke Scott stepped to the plate with the Rays down to their final out and a runner on base.

Scott pushed Veras to a 3-2 count after starting 1-2.

He then proceeded to foul off pitch after pitch...Before finally hitting a single up the middle to score Jennings who had taken second earlier in the inning.

Ben Zobrist then singled to center to get Scott to third, putting him 90 feet away from a tie game with Evan Longoria stepping to the plate.

With a 2-2 count Veras struck out Longoria looking, giving Cosart his first major league win.

Offensively, Jake Elmore, JD Martinez and Matt Dominguez all had multiple hits for the Astros. The Astros got to David Price early scoring two runs in the first on a Carlos Corporan single.

I don't really have much else to say, because tonight belongs to Jarred Cosart.