Redskin

Framber Valdez’s Game 1 clunker puts the Astros in an early World Series hole


Inducing weak contact is Framber Valdez’s game. His sinker moves all over the place — which makes him a particularly challenging catch partner — and his curveball is elite. According to Statcast, he was in the ninth percentile of all pitchers in average exit velocity against during the regular season. His groundball percentage of 66.8 is the best among qualified starting pitchers dating to the start of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

In Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, you would’ve thought it was a completely different pitcher on the mound. Valdez had his pitches crushed all over the field by Braves hitters in the Astros’ 6-2 loss. And it could’ve been even worse than the five runs he allowed on eight hits and one walk in his two-plus innings.

Valdez faced 15 Braves batters and 12 put the ball in play. Of those 12, six of them hit a ball that registered an exit velocity of 105 mph or harder (two of which resulted in outs) and three other balls had a 94 mph exit velocity or harder.

“I left the ball up a lot in the zone tonight,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “They were able to get a lot of fly balls, a lot of line drives. … That’s not the kind of pitcher that I am. I like to work down in the zone.”

Valdez made life harder on himself by routinely falling behind and into hitter’s counts, an element of his night that was reminiscent of his poor ALCS Game 1 start against the Red Sox.





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