Cool under fire
Teammates help defuse tense situation during Valdez’s otherwise effective outing
Framber Valdez avoids meltdown after heated exchange in sixth.
Astros lefthander Framber Valdez had his curveball under control during most of his stint Friday, but he needed some veteran leadership to help keep his emotions in check during what could have been a rocky sixth inning.
Gifted with a four-run lead entering the bottom of the sixth, Valdez retired the dangerous Randy Arozarena for the first out and then allowed a base hit to Hunter Renfroe before Rays first baseman Yandy Diaz came to the plate.
Diaz walked on a 3-2 curveball, then exchanged words with Valdez before cooler heads prevailed in the form of catch er Martin Maldonado and shortstop Carlos Corr ea. Valdez induced an inning- ending double play by Brandon Lowe and then took off his cap and punched his fist with his glove as he left the field.
“We just let ourselves get caught up in the adrenaline, and a couple of words were exchanged. Nothing serious,” Valdez said after the Astros won 7-4 to force a seventh game in the American League Championship Series. “It’s something that happens between players, and it gets heated. You can let that get you unfocused, but then you have to get refocused, which is what I did.”
Correa said he told Valdez: “‘Your job is not to go out and be the bigger man. Your job is to help us win the ballgame, and you’re not going to help us if you’re distracted. Just focus, give me a ground-ball double play, and let’s get out of the inning.’ And he did.”
Correa speculated that Valdez’s habit of smiling on the mound might have irked Diaz, and Valdez acknowledged that possibility.
“I’ve always had that habit,” he said. “It’s my way of staying loose, my way of having fun and not getting too tight. I’ll admit that sometimes the batters take it personally. They think I’m laughing at them, but it’s not that at all.”
It was a brief kerfuffle, albeit a dramatic one, in yet another clutch performance for the young lefthander who has emerged after an up-and-down 2019 season to be a cornerstone of the Astros’ reshuffled staff.
“It’s a big day for me personal
ly, formy family and for the history of the Astros,” he said. “You can never take any kind of lead for granted. The ball is round, but it has lines on it, and you can never trust in the game. You have to stay focused.”
Valdez threw 52 curveballs
among101 pitches with 54 strikes, getting 15of his17 swinging strikes on the curve. He allowed three hits and a run through six innings with nine strikeouts, eight of which came on the curveball, and three walks.
“He’s been phenomenal for us,” said outfielder Kyle Tucker. “We’re so excited to have him on themound becausewe knowhe’s going to give us his all and do a really good job.
“We feel likewe’re going to win when he’s out there on the mound.”
The Rays got to him for the game’s first run in the second inning on an RBI double by Willy Adames, but he retired JoeyWendle for the third out and then got through the third with only a walk to Arozarena before retiring Tampa Bay in order in the fourth.
Valdez’s concentration appeared to wander in the fifth, when he walked Adames and missed the zone with his first pitch to Wendle. Maldonado came out to the mound in an apparent effort to settle matters, and Valdez got out of the inning with no further damage — except for to the bat of Mike Zunino, which the Rays catcher broke over his leg after striking out.
Of the three pitchers who followed Valdez in the seventh and eighth, only Blake Taylor escaped unscathed, retiring hard-hitting Arozarena for the third out in the seventh inning after Andre Scrubb allowed the first of two late-game home runs by Manuel Margot and issued two walks.
Cristian Javier allowed a tworun homer to Margot in the eighth, which forced the Astros to bring in closer Ryan Pressly, who pitched for the third game in a row. Pressly’s scoreless ninth ended when Mike Brousseau hit into a double play.
For the Astros, it was a satisfying ending to a nervy night that could have gotten out of hand but did not.
“I’ve seen players, especially young players, get off track and let their emotions get to them,” manager Dusty Baker said. “He (Valdez) had to get back on track. Things could have unraveled very quickly, especially in a game of this magnitude. I’m glad that cooler heads prevailed.”