Houston entered today’s matchup against the Oakland Athletics winners of 18 of their last 22. Framber Valdez (8-4, 2.64) took his 17th turn on the hill for the season. As part of the five-headed monster that is Houston’s rotation, Valdez’ stellar 1.129 WHIP coming into the game actually ranked fourth, and his 8.3 K/9 ranks just ninth out of 11 qualified pitchers on the roster.
Valdez actually Frambered himself out of trouble early, when he had two runners in scoring position with only one out. He struck out Chad Pinder and induced an Elvis Andrus groundout to close the frame.