Houston @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Aug 4, 2024 ) Tampa Bay 1, Houston 0
Left-hander Framber Valdez, who was one out away from tossing his second career no-hitter in his latest start, will be back on the mound when the Houston Astros open a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Valdez (11-5, 3.46 ERA) flirted with history in his win over the Texas Rangers last Tuesday. Soon after Ezequiel Duran grounded into a double play for the first two outs of the ninth, Corey Seager sent Valdez's 107th -- and final -- pitch of the night over the wall in right-center for a two-run homer.
"I thought maybe about throwing the sinker there, but my cutter was still fairly good and he was able to hit it out," said Valdez, who walked three and struck out five.
Seager's blast denied Valdez, who no-hit the Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 1, 2023, in Houston, from becoming the second pitcher to toss multiple no-hitters with the Astros.
Don Wilson threw a pair of no-hitters for Houston, one in 1967 and the other in 1969.
"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 is 6-0 with a 2.81 ERA in his past eight starts. The Astros have ended up winning all of those games.
Houston has won five in a row overall and just earned a 10-2 victory over the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon. Alex Bregman and Jeremy Pena each had a homer and a double and Yordan Alvarez hit his 25th homer of the season for the Astros, who clobbered nine home runs in their three-game series sweep of Boston.
"That's a playoff team over there," Bregman said of the Red Sox. "They're a really good ballclub. ... Our pitching threw the ball well, I thought we put together quality at-bats all three days and we got to continue to do that. Especially when we play against really good teams."
Tampa Bay, which is 5 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot in the American League, took two of three games from the Astros earlier this month. The Rays salvaged the finale of a three-game series with the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, rallying for a 2-1 victory thanks in large part to an eighth-inning, bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Curtis Mead.
On Monday, the Rays will start right-hander Taj Bradley (6-6, 3.07), who is 1-1 with an 8.64 ERA in two career starts against Houston.
Bradley was the AL's Pitcher of the Month for July, when he had a three-start stretch in which he allowed no runs and eight hits over 20 innings. Batters hit just .160 against him for the month, and he struck out 31 in 31 innings.
"Month to month, I always try to perform better for myself or beat my own expectations," Bradley said. "Awards like (that) are cool to come by, but I always think in my head there's more ahead."
Bradley's August got off to a rough start with a loss against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. He allowed five runs on nine hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings, his second-shortest outing of the season.
--Field Level Media