Astros’ Framber Valdez Loses No-Hit Bid After 8.2 Innings
Framber Valdez came within one out of recording his second career no-hitter Tuesday night in Arlington versus the Texas Rangers.
The 30-year-old lefty, who entered the night having recorded a 2.96 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 48.2 innings over his previous eight starts, began the bottom of the ninth without allowing a single hit. The only two base runners to reach against him before then came via an error and a walk.
Valdez walked Robbie Grossman to kick off the final frame but retired him one batter later as Ezequiel Duran grounded into a double play. The next batter up was Josh Smith, who worked a full count – putting the Houston Astros ace one strike away from completing the no-hitter – before earning a six-pitch walk.
That put a runner on base for the dangerous Corey Seager, and he delivered a crushing blow on the first pitch he saw from the southpaw, connecting on a hanging slider for a two-run blast. Closer Josh Hader entered out of the bullpen afterwards, recording the final out to secure Houston’s 4-2 victory.
Valdez’s night came to a disappointing end after his 107th pitch, which proved to be his only mistake – albeit a costly one – amidst another dazzling performance.
The two-time All-Star, whose first no-hitter came against the Cleveland Guardians on August 1st of last season, came up just short of joining Don Wilson (1967, 1969) as the only pitchers in franchise history to toss multiple no-hitters.
“I’m happy,” Valdez told reporters post-game, including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. “Not everybody gets to get a no-hitter all the way to the ninth inning. For me, the most important thing is the team won and I won and I battled.”
It’s not the first time Seager has broken up a no-hit bid. He also did it with two outs in the ninth against Matt Moore in 2016, becoming the first player to ever accomplish that feat twice, per MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
Moore’s manager during that season was also Bruce Bochy, who was on the other side of a potential no-hitter this time.
Valdez relied heavily on his curveball Tuesday, using it 37.4 percent of the time – his fifth-highest usage of the season. He also incorporated his changeup significantly, posting a season-high 29.9 percent usage.
But when it came time to face Seager, last season’s World Series MVP, he went to his fourth-best pitch to begin the at-bat.
“I thought maybe about throwing the sinker there, but my cutter was still fairly good and he was able to hit it out,” Valdez said. “He’s a tremendous hitter and that’s what he goes up there to try to do, is hit the ball.”
Over the first five innings, Valdez retired the first 15 batters he faced, carrying a perfect game into the sixth before a throwing error from third baseman Alex Bregman allowed Jonah Heim to reach safely. He wasn’t on base for long, though, as Robbie Grossman’s double-play converted two outs on one pitch.
From there, the Domicanan hurler set down eight of the nine batters he faced, four consecutively, entering the ninth.
“I think once I get to the seventh inning, that’s when I always tell myself, ‘All right I need to throw this no-hitter,’” Valdez said. “It was a perfect game or no-hitter and I haven’t allowed any hits or no runs, that’s when I tell myself, ‘OK, I need to go finish this.’ It didn’t happen. It’s fine, but I battled today.”
While Valdez couldn’t make history, the left-hander still dominated by inducing 12 ground-ball outs and five strikeouts, recording 16 whiffs – eight via his curveball – and 26 of the possible 27 outs to provide much-needed rest for an overworked Astros bullpen.
“The team needed that win,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Framber, to go deep gave our bullpen a little break there, even though we had to use Josh. It was a really great team win.”
In 20 starts this season, Valdez owns a 3.46 ERA – nearly identical to his ‘23 ERA of 3.45 – and 3.61 FIP with 113 strikeouts across 125 innings. His 59.2-percent ground-ball rate leads all qualified big-league starters.
Houston enters Wednesday’s series finale against Texas just half a game back of the AL West-leading Seattle Mariners. With a win, they’d control the tiebreaker over their Lonestar State rival if the pair finish with identical records, just as they did last season.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Delaywaves. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.