‘Calm and centered’ Valdez beats Ohtani once more

HOUSTON — Astros ace Framber Valdez admitted he will get excited when he has to oppose Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani. The similar most likely can’t be mentioned for Ohtani about dealing with Valdez, who outdueled him Friday night time for the second time in lower than a month.

Valdez picked up his fourth consecutive victory by throwing seven scoreless innings, permitting 5 hits whereas placing out seven batters, to beat Ohtani and the Angels, 6-2, on Friday night time at Minute Maid Park. Both of Ohtani’s losses this season have come towards Valdez, who threw eight innings of one-run ball on May 9 in Anaheim.

“I definitely get excited sometimes pitching against Ohtani,” Valdez mentioned. “Obviously, he’s probably the best player in the league right now — the MVP. But whenever I go up there, I see it as, I’m pitching against his teammates, and my teammates are the ones that also help me beat him, as well. Not try to focus on the way he’s pitching. He’s just like me, trying to go out there and throw strikes and throw it over the middle of the plate and get outs as well. Thankfully, today our guys were able to get him.”

Yordan Alvarez blasted a two-run homer off Ohtani within the first inning, making him the primary Major League participant to achieve 50 RBIs this season. Corey Julks added a two-run homer within the sixth to place the Astros forward, 5-0. Ohtani (5-2) gave up 5 runs and struck out six batters in six innings.

“It started off with Alvarez, then he was getting tired at the end and he hung a pitch on Julks,” Astros supervisor Dusty Baker mentioned. “That was most of our runs. How we got to him? Nobody gets to him too much. We were fortunate to not miss pitches when we had an opportunity to hit him.”

The homer by Alvarez was the primary in his profession towards Ohtani. Seven of his team-high 15 homers this yr have given the Astros the lead.

“He’s a horse out there, and when he steps in the batter’s box he should be feared,” Valdez mentioned. “The pitchers that go up to the batter’s box know who he is, and it really hasn’t surprised me what he’s been doing since the beginning of the season. He’s a really good hitter.”

Valdez (6-4) proved to be an escape artist on Friday, placing out Ohtani and Mike Trout to finish the third and stranding a pair of runners. He acquired a key double play to finish the fourth after giving up two singles to begin the inning. And to complete off the seventh, he picked up an inning-ending, bases-loaded double play on a sinker.

“He was awesome, and he got out of trouble with those double-play balls like he usually does, and that saved his pitch count some,” Baker mentioned. “You could tell it was hot in there. Framber was sweating, Ohtani was sweating. Both of them were a little gassed.”

In his previous 5 outings beginning with a win towards the Angels on May 9, Valdez is 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA and 0.85 WHIP, with the Astros going 5-0 within the span. In his final three begins, Valdez is 3-0 with a 0.41 ERA and 0.77 WHIP, permitting one earned run in 22 innings with 19 strikeouts and 4 walks.

“Back in my day, we say get the ball down, and when guys swung through pitches up, we didn’t understand why,” Angels supervisor Phil Nevin mentioned. “But with technology now, we know [Valdez’s sinker] has ride and it looks like it’s in a certain spot, but it’s not. It’s a really tough pitch to hit, obviously.”

Valdez entered Friday with a profession 65.9 p.c ground-ball share, which is the very best within the Majors since 2018 (minimal 300 innings), so when he acquired three fly ball outs within the first inning, it raised eyebrows. Soon, although, it was again to classic Valdez, who didn’t get yet one more flyout the remainder of the sport.

Valdez mentioned his 96.4 mph sinker to get Chad Wallach to floor right into a 6-4-3 double play on his 92nd and closing pitch of the night time was maybe his better of the sport. Maybe that’s why he walked off the mound with an enormous smile on his face. Beating Ohtani once more didn’t harm, both.

“I felt very good today,” he mentioned. “I felt calm and focused.”