HOUSTON — There is a new tradition before each of Framber Valdez’s starts inside Minute Maid Park. After the Houston Astros’ starting lineup is announced, a camera will pan to Valdez as The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” blares inside the still-filling ballpark.
Valdez is either finishing his walk in from the bullpen or beginning his high fives inside the first-base dugout as the chorus reaches a crescendo. The song evokes scenes of Charlie Sheen’s detour from a California Penal League to the Cleveland Indians’ fictional flamethrowing closer in Major League.
Rick Vaughn shares few similarities with Valdez. Vaughn touched triple digits and sought strikeouts during big at-bats. Valdez prefers generating ground balls with a sinker that sits in the low 90s. Both pitchers ditched a trademark hairstyle in favor of something more clean-cut, prompting some paranoia from the fans that followed them.
Vaughn returned to his roots after getting rocked. Valdez didn’t spiral, but did receive at least some encouragement from Alex Bregman to bring back his hair extensions. Houston’s southpaw obliged before a June 23 start against the Baltimore Orioles. Bregman, in turn, initiated the “Wild Thing” serenade during Valdez’s walk in from the bullpen.
No American League starter has a lower earned-run average in the 82 days since, a stretch that revived an injury-riddled Astros rotation while showing the stability Valdez has sometimes struggled to harness.
“He’s been great for us,” a smiling Bregman said following Thursday’s 6-3 win against the A’s. “Just keep it rolling, keep doing his things and keep getting us some ground balls.”
The Astros have won 13 of the 14 games Valdez has started since he reintroduced his hair extensions. His ERA has plummeted a full run, from 3.91 to 2.91. Among qualified American League starters, only Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has a lower one.
The Cy Young Award is Skubal’s to lose, but Valdez is offering one of the closest things to competition he has. If not for an 18-game absence in April due to “left elbow soreness,” Valdez could be in legitimate contention for the award even with Skubal’s dominance. Instead, Kansas City’s Seth Lugo, with a 2.94 ERA and 29 2/3 more innings than Valdez, may merit more legitimate consideration.
Valdez must settle for being the ace of a team closing in on its fourth consecutive American League West championship. It’s a role he relishes. No-hitters have twice been within his grasp during this dominant stretch.
After coming within a strike of one in Arlington on Aug. 6, Valdez said he was “just happy” while insisting “the most important thing is the team won.” Twenty-four days later, when manager Joe Espada pulled him after seven no-hit innings against the Kansas City Royals, Valdez repeated the same line.
“Framber has turned the corner and been more mature,” Espada said on Thursday, “because we need him to get big wins, just like this one.”
Valdez struck out six and surrendered five hits across 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball against a resurgent Oakland A’s lineup. The start did snap a scoreless streak that stretched back to Aug. 30, but still epitomized everything Valdez has become for a ballclub sputtering its way through September.
Framber Valdez’s 3Ks in the 4th. pic.twitter.com/fgWVRuGsLL
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 12, 2024
Valdez stopped a three-game losing streak and kept this singles-happy offense within striking distance of a depleted A’s bullpen. A four-run, four-single eighth inning against rookie reliever Grant Holman rewarded Valdez’s work, even if it did not get reflected in the decision.
“I understand how important this game was for us and the team,” Valdez said. “It was extremely important for us to win and thankfully we were able to win that game.”
Dominant stretches aren’t abnormal for Valdez, but few have felt more mandatory than this one. Justin Verlander’s regression, coupled with some uncertainty from young pitchers with increasing workloads, leave an entire club relying on Valdez to reprise a role it has witnessed him cherish.
Two seasons ago, Valdez spun 25 consecutive quality starts to set a major-league record that somehow got overshadowed. One spot ahead of Valdez in the rotation sat Verlander, who unanimously won the Cy Young Award with a 1.75 ERA.
Now, Valdez is the man around whom this rotation is anchored, the person Houston will want to start Game 1 of a playoff series some were uncertain would even happen. When his long hair reappeared on June 23, the Astros awoke with a six-game deficit in the American League West. Valdez’s start on Thursday staved off a sweep and ensured Houston will remain at least 3 1/2 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners with 16 games remaining.
Valdez stranded four A’s in scoring position while collecting four of his six strikeouts looking. Opponents are hitting .128 against him across his past seven starts, a stretch in which his curveball is generating a whiff rate of nearly 45 percent and he’s walked just 13 batters across 47 1/3 innings.
“My pitches are good. My pitches are really good,” Valdez said. “The most important thing is I’m able to throw them for strikes, just to continue throwing them in the strike zone and making them look like strikes.”
Things still aren’t flawless. Valdez failed to get off the mound quick enough after lethal A’s leadoff man Lawrence Butler grounded his second pitch of the game toward first base. In the seventh, he tried to throw a pitch out of the windup after already throwing another out of the stretch. That neither instance imploded Valdez’s outing is marked progress, another step in the maturation of a man who’s already made meaningful strides.
“I’ve been here for many years with Framber,” said Espada, who has been in the organization since 2018. “He’s done a lot of growing up. Plays behind him or missed calls, he’s done a better job of controlling his emotions. (He knows he’s) one pitch away from getting out of the inning and good pitchers — aces — they do that.”
(Photo: Logan Riely / Getty Images)
