Valdez falls 1 out shy of 2nd career no-hitter
Brian McTaggart
ARLINGTON — One pitch separated Astros left-hander Framber Valdez from making history on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.
Needing one out to become the second player in franchise history to throw multiple no-hitters, Valdez gave up a towering two-run homer to Corey Seager on his 107th and final pitch to end the no-hit bid after 8 2/3 innings. Astros closer Josh Hader had to record the final out of Houston’s 4-2 win over the Rangers, but it didn’t spoil Valdez’s mood.
“I’m happy,” Valdez said. “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.”
Valdez, who no-hit the Guardians on Aug. 1, 2023, in Houston, continued his second-half dominance by improving to 6-0 with a 2.81 ERA in his past eight starts, all of which the Astros have won. Tuesday’s win means Wednesday’s series finale will decide which team has the tiebreaker between the two clubs if they finish with identical records like they did last year.
“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.”
Valdez took the mound to start the ninth with 93 pitches and walked leadoff hitter Robbie Grossman. He got a double-play grounder on the next pitch, giving him 8 2/3 no-hit innings and bringing everyone in Houston’s dugout to the railing.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s going to finish it,’” Espada said. “He couldn’t finish [Josh] Smith. It looked like he was trying to overthrow a little bit. He earned the right to go after Seager.”
Valdez walked Smith before Seager crushed the first pitch he saw and sent it sailing into the right-field seats. He’s the first player in history to break up two no-hit bids with two outs in the ninth inning. And with that, Don Wilson remains the only Astros pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters (in 1967 and 1969).
“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.”
Valdez, who ranks first in ground-ball percentage in the Major Leagues this year (59.3% entering Tuesday), got 12 ground-ball outs and struck out five batters. He got 16 swings and misses, including eight on his curveball. He also featured a sinker and threw 32 changeups, which is a marked increase in usage.
“We were beating it in the ground,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “You got your hands full. And he was on top of his game. He’s done that to a lot of teams. That’s baseball. A guy goes out there and he’s on top of his game, and you get your hands full. We just couldn’t get anything going there ‘til the ninth.”
The Seager homer was the end of the line for Valdez, who got a big ovation as he walked off the mound following his gem. He’s had a no-hitter through six innings five times in his career.
“I told him, ‘That’s a hell of a performance’ in Spanish,” Espada said. “I used a few other words in Spanish, too. We need guys like that to step up and give us innings, and he did.”
Valdez retired the first 15 batters he faced before Jonah Heim reached base to start the sixth inning on a throwing error by third baseman Alex Bregman. Valdez quickly erased Heim on a double play. The only other runner to reach through eight innings was Marcus Semien on a two-out walk in the seventh.
“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.”
The Rangers never hit a ball harder than 99 mph against Valdez through seven innings. He was at 29 pitches through three innings and 60 pitches after six frames, putting him in prime position to finish the no-hit bid.
Astros catcher Yainer Diaz, who caught Ronel Blanco’s no-hitter on April 1 against Toronto, said it simply wasn’t meant to be.
“We were a strike away from getting the no-hitter and obviously they went up there to hit, as well,” Diaz said. “You have to give him credit, he pitched really well.”
