Astros' Framber Valdez ‘the best I've seen him' in 83-pitch complete game masterpiece

New York Times

a day ago

HOUSTON — Framber Valdez can epitomize efficiency. Soft contact supersedes strikeouts for a sinkerballer on the precipice of a payday. This platform year is a showcase for one the sport's pre-eminent southpaws, a seven-month sojourn toward a nine-figure salary.
Vintage Valdez is worth every penny a team is willing to pay. History suggests the Houston Astros won't be serious bidders but will settle for savoring the final season from a homegrown success story. Such is routine across their golden era.
Advertisement
Extending it into another October rests, in part, on Valdez's broad shoulders. Injuries have ravaged Houston's starting rotation to an almost unrecognizable state. Valdez and Hunter Brown are its two constants, calming forces amid so much chaos.
Brown's ascension into acehood has captivated the city. Valdez already resided there, a fact this magical Friday helped to accentuate.
Games in late May only carry so much cachet, but what unfolded across two hours and two minutes at Daikin Park will resonate for however long Houston survives this season. Valdez authored one of his finest starts as an Astro in what is probably his final season with the team. His batterymate, Yainer Diaz, delivered a walk-off home run to reward him with a win he wholeheartedly deserved.
'I think it's one of my best outings in my career so far,' Valdez said through an interpreter.
Valdez fired the game's first pitch at 7:12 p.m. Tampa Bay Rays leadoff man Jose Caballero clubbed the second into the Crawford Boxes for a solo home run.
'He got really pissed off,' manager Joe Espada said. 'His stuff just got better. He said 'They're not going to touch me anymore.''
And so they didn't. Valdez delivered perhaps the most dominant start of his major-league career, toying with Tampa's aggressive lineup across nine incredible innings of a 2-1 win. He struck out nine, surrendered two singles after Caballero's solo shot and operated at a pace and pitch count rarely seen in the modern era.
Went the distance.#BuiltForThis x @budweiserusa pic.twitter.com/UXSHgWICV8
— Houston Astros (@astros) May 31, 2025
Valdez needed 83 pitches to finish the ninth complete game of his career. No major leaguer had thrown fewer in a nine-inning complete game since Kyle Hendricks required 81 to shut out the St. Louis Cardinals on May 3, 2019. No Astro had thrown a complete game on fewer than 85 pitches since Darryl Kile no-hit the New York Mets on Sept. 8, 1993.
Advertisement
Valdez has a no-hitter of his own. Last season in Arlington, he came within one out of another. Both he and Espada intimated Friday's start was better, even if four Rays reached base.
Valdez harnessed impeccable command of his two-seam fastball. Twenty-four of the 31 he threw were either swung upon or called a strike. Fourteen of the 19 balls Tampa put in play against him were groundouts. Shortstop Jeremy Peña fielded nine of them, including the 6-4-3 double play ball that erased Jonathan Aranda's infield single in the fifth.
'We were very aggressive in attacking the zone,' Diaz said through an interpreter. 'The other team, they get scared when we are right on them with the pitches. I think that's what worked today, is that we were aggressive and attacking the zone pretty effectively today.'
Only seven teams entered Friday with a higher swing rate than the Rays. Only seven others — including the Astros — swing at more first pitches than Tampa. Five of Valdez's outs arrived on the first pitch of a plate appearance, and he did not reach a three-ball count until the ninth inning.
'It influenced a lot,' Valdez said of the Rays' aggressiveness. 'We know that's a team that attacks a lot on the first pitch. That's why we're professionals here. We study and have plans of attack.'
Tampa's inability to hit left-handed pitching has been a hallmark of its season. Only eight lineups entered Friday with a lower OPS against southpaws than Tampa's. Two of the team's best hitters, Brandon Lowe and Josh Lowe, are left-handed. They sat Friday opposite Valdez.
Even starting them may not have mattered. Valdez dominated whomever Tampa sent to the plate. He needed fewer than 10 pitches to finish six of his nine innings. The Rays saw just seven pitches in the sixth, one Caballero completed by watching an 0-2 curveball land inside his strike zone.
Advertisement
The Rays swung 14 times against Valdez's curveball. Seven were whiffs. Six of Valdez's nine strikeouts concluded upon it.
Valdez produced a punchout in every inning but the ninth. Nine-hole hitter Taylor Walls singled, and Caballero worked a four-pitch walk, forcing Espada to activate his bullpen, even if he had no intention of using it.
'That's (Valdez's) game, and he was going to stay out there, and he was going to decide the fate of his own game,' Espada said.
Only if cleanup man Junior Caminero came to the plate would Espada reconsider. Valdez and Diaz never allowed him to step on deck. Diaz caught Walls trying to steal third base — just the seventh time in 76 attempts an Astros catcher has thrown out a base stealer.
'That was a huge out for us because it gave my pitcher confidence to concentrate on the hitter and not on the base runners,' Diaz said.
Concentration is perhaps Valdez's biggest hurdle. Bad calls, cheap hits or misplays behind him often cause him to lose focus or fall apart. Plays like the one Diaz made motivate him. He fell behind Yandy Díaz 2-0 before Yainer Diaz threw out Walls.
After he did, Valdez delivered two pitches. Yandy Díaz grounded the second to Peña, who finished the 27th out of a terrific night.
'This is the best I've seen him,' Espada said.