Bats make up for Valdez’s troubles
BALTIMORE — The problem with streaks is that they have to die sometime.
Two met their demise Saturday. The end of the Astros’ 20-inning scoring drought at Camden
Yards coincided with the end of Framber Valdez’s MLB-record streak of 25 consecutive quality starts in a single season. The Astros, though, refused to say die.
The Astros were down to their final out before they rallied to score four runs in the ninth inning and snatched an 11-10 win from the Orioles.
Five ties, five home runs and 10 pitching changes — six by Baltimore — ensued over the course of four hours before Houston claimed its 100th win of the season.
“That was like a heavyweight boxing match and nobody was gonna give up,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “That was a strange game, but it was a hardfought game.”
The Astros are the first club in American League history to reach 100 wins four times in the span of five full seasons, per Elias, and are seven wins from tying the single-season franchise record set in 2019. Baker also became the fourth manager in MLB history to win 100 games in a season in both leagues, joining Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tony La Russa.
The Orioles had staved off the Astros’ milestone victory for two days, and Saturday it appeared that they would again after Anthony Santander’s second home run of the night, a two-run bomb off Rafael Montero in the bottom of the eighth inning, put the Orioles ahead 9-7.
With Orioles closer Félix Bautista pitching in the ninth, Astros pinch-hitter Christian Vázquez singled, Jose Altuve drew a walk and Yordan Alvarez loaded the bases on a one-out, line-drive single. Alex Bregman bounced a ground ball toward the shortstop hole. The Orioles got the putout at second but were late on the throw to first base, allowing Vázquez to score.
Runners remained on the corners for Kyle Tucker, who had struck out against Bautista the inning prior. Tucker ripped an RBI double to right field, eliciting a collective gasp from the crowd and knotting the score 9-9.
In the clubhouse afterward, a readout of Tucker’s heart rate might have shown a flat line to match his straight-faced expression as he answered a question about his approach to his second at-bat against Bautista.
“Try and get a hit,” Tucker said simply. “I think it kind of helped that I saw him that inning before. He’s a good pitcher, I was just hitting that splitter because he left it up a little bit.”
Tucker’s hit chased Bautista off the mound. Jake Reed replaced him, and Yuli Gurriel delivered a routine ground ball through the right side of the infield. It was enough for two runs to score, capping an offensive explosion the Astros had sorely lacked the previous two days.
Houston closer Ryan Pressly surrendered a solo home run on his second pitch in the bottom of the ninth, whittling the lead to a single run, but held steady thereafter to protect it.
For the first time since his April 19 start, Valdez failed to finish six innings. The 11 hits and seven runs Baltimore collected against him through 51⁄3 innings were both season highs. He struck out six batters, walked one and surrendered two home runs. Of his 103 pitches, he threw 63 strikes and generated just six swing-and-misses.
The Astros southpaw entered the game with an opportunity to earn his 26th quality start and tie Bob Gibson and Jacob deGrom, who each achieved that result over multiple seasons. A hodgepodge of weak hits and home runs jeopardized Valdez’s chance four innings into the game. A one-out RBI single in the sixth inning terminated it along with his outing, but was far from the curtain call on a dramatic affair at Camden Yards.
“The streak ended today, but we’re just going to continue playing good baseball,” said Valdez, who departed with the Astros trailing 7-6. “Today was one of those days that I tried to just give them my best, give them my all. (I) felt a little bit uncomfortable there on the mound, but those are things that we can work on, things that we can get better (at) and just continue moving forward.”
The drama heightened again in the seventh inning when, in his second major league relief appearance, Hunter Brown escaped a basesloaded, no-out jam. Houston’s rookie pitcher gave up back-to-back singles before Rougned Odor bunted a soft popup down the first-base line. Brown dove for it but missed, and Odor hurdled him on his way to arriving safely at first base.
But with the help of two mound visits, Brown retired the next three batters on a strikeout, a forceout at home plate and a groundout.
Mancini to sit out series’ final game
Astros manager Dusty Baker said he will not play Trey Mancini for the last game of the Baltimore series to give Mancini a chance to “get straight” amid a 10 for 64 slump in September. Mancini, whom Baker also sat Saturday, is hitless in his last 11 at-bats, including 0-for-6 in two games against his former team, the Orioles. Baker said he observed some regression in Mancini’s pitch selection and also thought the Orioles knew how to exploit Mancini’s weaknesses.
Big inning lifts Space Cowboys
Sugar Land notched a series victory in their final home series of the season with a 5-4 victory over the Albuquerque Isotopes on Saturday night at Constellation Field.
The Space Cowboys scored three runs in the second to help lead them to their sixth win in their last seven games