Erratic control yet masterful
Enigmatic lefthander Valdez earns victory with six innings of no-hit ball despite six walks
Myles Straw sprinted to his left. Kyle Tucker took off to his right. History hung in the air for what felt like forever. The baseball traveled only 255 feet. Isiah KinerFalefa struck it at 75.4 mph. Straw closed in while it returned to earth. He dove head first. Tucker tucked his leg and started a figurefour slide.
Maybe six feet separated their two gloves. Kiner-Falefa’s flare found the patch of grass between it. Straw stayed on all fours and hung his head, allowing himself a few seconds of frustration. Tucker trapped the baseball, but quickly tossed it back toward the infield. Life left Minute Maid Park on an otherwise forgettable night.
People stayed for a pursuit of history, not the product they paid to see. Neither starting pitcher possessed any control. Neither lineup took any advantage. The teams took 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position and did not muster a hit. Execution did not exist, evaporating any energy the ballpark held. The Astros and Rangers played a game only baseball purists can pretend to enjoy.
Out of it arrived another bid for immortality. Framber Valdez and Bryan Abreu teamed to fire seven innings and not allow a hit. Six outs separated the Astros from the 12th no-hitter in franchise history. Ryne Stanek’s second pitch ended the journey. Kiner-Falefa blooped it for a single, saving Texas from further humiliation.
“I thought they had a chance,” manager Dusty Baker said. “That was the one guy in their lineup that’s going to put the ball in play and use the whole field. If anybody over there was going to break it up, it was going to be him.”
The Rangers had already been no-hit twice this season. The Astros could not finish the third. They settled for a 4-1 win, sinking the Rangers further into a post-All Star break abyss. They’ve lost 11 straight games and all nine since the break. They have not held a lead for 96 consecutive innings, an almost unfathomable amount of futility Houston furthered on Saturday.
Eight of the game’s first 14 hitters walked. Valdez finished with six free passes. Rangers starter Kyle Gibson walked eight and hit another batter. Gibson entered walking only 2.8 batters per nine innings. The loss of control came at an awful time.
Saturday gave Gibson a final audition ahead of Friday’s trade deadline. Contenders will covet him in an otherwise thin starting pitching market. He awoke Saturday one of 14 major league starters with an ERA below 3.00. He made the American League All-Star team earlier this month, too.
Gibson could not have scripted a better scenario for such a pivotal start. He has owned Houston during his two-year Rangers tenure. During Gibson’s five starts in the Silver Boot series, the Astros scored four earned runs against him in 34 innings. Gibson’s grisly control gave away any advantage.
“This guy has thrown lights out against us, but he was off the plate,” Baker said. “I don’t want to take anything away from our guys, but a lot of those pitches weren’t even close. You have to come across the plate.”
Four of the Astros’ first five hitters worked walks against him. Carlos Correa coaxed a five-pitch free pass to force in a run during the first. Michael Brantley walked to start the second. Yuli Gurriel advanced him to third with a double down the right field line. Both men scored on sacrifice flies to right fielder Eli White.
White started in place of Gallo, who has one of the sport’s premier throwing arms. Houston ran at will against his replacement. White’s throw beat Brantley to home plate, but it sailed off target. The error allowed Gurriel to gallop to third.
Gurriel slid ahead of White’s relay on Correa’s subsequent sacrifice fly. After Gurriel’s double, the Astros did not get another extra-base hit until Yordan Alvarez’s solo home run during the seventh. They finished with five hits and stranded seven baserunners, affording Valdez little margin for error.
Valdez spun six no-hit innings nonetheless. The feat itself is commendable. The journey there is not. Houston’s enigmatic southpaw continued a troubling trend of terrible command. Valdez walked six Rangers in six innings. Just 53 of his 99 pitches were strikes. Four of the first seven Rangers he faced worked a walk, prolonging his monthlong issues with control.
Valdez has walked 21 batters in the past 34 1⁄3 innings. He walked nine during his first 321⁄3 innings this season. The loss of control rouses memories of Valdez in 2018 and 2019. The difference now is his discipline. Valdez can step off the rubber, remove his cap and collect his thoughts, calming himself amid the chaos.
Valdez stranded all six walks. It prevented his struggles from snowballing, but bred obvious inefficiency. Valdez needed 41 pitches to finish his first two frames. He needed 23 to complete the sixth, ensuring he could not complete his bid for history.
“I looked up there and saw it was a no-hitter and I couldn’t believe it because of the number of walks that were out there,” Baker said. “At least we won the ballgame and he kept us in the ballgame.”
After he exited, Valdez remained in the dugout to oversee its completion. He stood on the top railing throughout the seventh. Correa committed a rare error to allow Andy Ibanez aboard. Abreu struck out two of the next three Rangers he saw, keeping the gem intact.
Houston’s bullpen problems are pronounced, but the eighth and ninth offer at least some solace. Stanek is the team’s second-most reliable reliever. To start the eighth, he spun a first pitch slider atop Kiner-Falefa’s strike zone. Ahead 1-0, he fired a 97.2 mph fastball. Kiner-Falefa got a piece of it. Two outfielders converged. They could not corral it.