Framber Valdez shuts down KC.
Baseball just isn’t fair.
If it were, Framber Valdez would be the headliner tonight.
It was vintage Framber tonight. He allowed one run in eight innings, six hits, one walk, with seven strikeouts. He induced three double plays and had 12 groundouts and only two flyouts. Most of the hits were weak, seeing-eye grounders. He did not get the win.
But Royals starter Kris Bubic was about as good, and the Astros entered the ninth inning tied 1 to 1 thanks to a Jeremy Pena fifth-inning solo homer.
And then….
Isaac Paredes walked it off with a solid homer to the Crawford Boxes, making Bryan Abreu the winning pitcher. It was Paredes’ first career walk-off.
Isaac Paredes and Chris Walker have big shoes to fill replacing ring-bearing Astros Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. Today, Paredes began to claim the mantle “Astro.”
The Astros win yet again behind stellar pitching, the only formula they’ve had this year. They had only six hits and were 0-5 with runners in scoring position. But a rare (for the 2025 Astros) two-homer game gave the Astros just enough. And Valdez’s eight innings gave the Astros’ bullpen a much-needed rest going into a prolonged stretch of games without a day off.
The rubber match in this three-game series is tomorrow, 7:10 CT. Lefty Colton Gordon makes his debut for the Stros.