The play that may have saved Framber Valdez’s no-hitter: Astros notes

HOUSTON — Defense can determine Framber Valdez’s level of dominance. No qualified American League starter induces more ground balls. None allows fewer fly balls, either, forcing the Astros’ infield to chase perfection on the days he pitches. Tension rose on Tuesday night with Houston’s sinkerball artist nearing history.

“You could see everyone was locked in, everyone was willing to dive for everything, everyone was ready for every play,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said on Wednesday, the day after Valdez’s no-hitter.

“I’m happy for him. Framber pitched a hell of a game. I felt like we didn’t get any hard plays. I felt like the whole game was routine plays, weak contact, so shout out to him and (catcher Martín Maldonado). It was special.”

Eight of Valdez’s final 12 outs were ground balls. Peña handled half of them, including the closest chance Cleveland had at a hit. If not for Valdez’s natural instincts, perhaps it would have been.

With two outs in the seventh inning, José Ramírez chopped an 0-1 cutter back toward the pitcher’s mound. The baseball appeared destined to bounce between Peña and second baseman Jose Altuve. Out of nothing but natural reaction, Valdez raised his right arm to try and secure it himself. It may have saved his no-hitter.

“He hit it and I couldn’t really tell you if I was going to get there or not and I couldn’t really tell you if Jose was going to get there or not,” Peña said. “As soon as it deflected, I was like, ‘Oh, we have a chance to get the play done.’ I got to go back and see if Jose was going to be there, but I’m not sure.”

Bench coach Joe Espada presumed Altuve would, but a better look at the overhead replay gave him some more pause. Espada, who coaches the team’s infielders and positions them during games, based his original confidence off the pre-pitch positioning against the right-handed hitting Ramírez.

“Peña is playing the hole and Jose is playing somewhere behind second base,” Espada said on Wednesday. “If someone was going to make that play, it was going to be Jose. But I think Jose would have been close. That was the only ball kind of closer to being a hit.”

If Altuve did secure the bouncing ball, it may have been on a backhand. Whether he could have completed a cross-body throw to nab Ramírez — who has an above-average sprint speed of 27.8 feet per second — is a legitimate question.

“If I had to make the play without the deflection, it was going to be a tougher play, for sure,” Peña said.

None of Valdez’s subsequent six outs created such suspense. To begin the ninth inning, Gabriel Arias hit Cleveland’s hardest ball in play — a 103.8 mph ground ball right at Altuve.

Two batters later, Cam Gallagher struck the Guardian’s softest contact of their hitless night. The 53.8 mph line drive had some weird spin, forcing Peña to range toward his left and reach down to secure it.

“I think that’s the best putout I’ve had in my career,” Peña said. “It was cool.”

Maldonado makes history

No Astro is more polarizing to Houston’s fanbase than Maldonado, the light-hitting catcher who carries immense weight inside the clubhouse and continues to play because of it.

Maldonado’s value is hard to quantify. His backup, Yainer Diaz, bests him in almost every available metric and has already been dubbed Houston’s catcher of the future. His offensive statistics are among the worst in baseball; he hasn’t hit over .200 since 2020.

Tuesday reinforced why there will be no shift in playing time this season. Valdez, Peña and almost everyone who spoke publicly afterward heaped praise on the 36-year-old catcher, who caught the third no-hitter of his 13-year major-league career. Only Carlos Ruiz and Jason Varitek have caught four.

“I’ve said it before and it’s fallen on deaf ears, kind of. He means a ton to our pitching staff,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said on Wednesday. “There’s something to putting down the right fingers and something to the catcher having trust and the pitchers having trust in the catchers.”

Maldonado works most of his magic away from the field, where he is renowned for his pregame preparation, detailed scouting reports and inherent ability to read swings to adjust in-game. By all accounts, Diaz is progressing in all of those areas, but the team values Maldonado’s experience and the rapport he’s formed with the pitching staff across the past six seasons.

Maldonado is important to the entire staff, but no starter needs him more than Valdez, an emotional southpaw who can sometimes still lose his focus and is now grappling with a pitch clock that can prevent him from using some of his techniques to calm down.

“It’s everything. That is everything,” Baker said. “You don’t have to really think, you just execute. If you have to think and execute or worry about a runner, that’s double trouble splitting your concentration. Especially with the 15-second (pitch) clock, you have very little time to shake off and then commit to the pitch that you’re about to throw.”

On Wednesday, Baker said Valdez barely shook off Maldonado during Tuesday night’s no-no.

“I feel like a lot of the sacrificing I do, sleeping-wise, being up at night (doing) scouting reports, also time with my kids. I’m doing reports and, if you ever have kids, you know they’re jumping all over you. I have to give them a paper while I’m doing work and they’re writing crazy stuff on the paper,” Maldonado said after Tuesday’s game.

“Overall, I think all the hard work I put in, all the time I put in on a daily basis on how to call a game and how to get a game plan together, it shows. I think it’s worth every minute.”

Questions going forward

Justin Verlander is scheduled to meet the Astros in New York on Thursday and will pitch in the team’s four-game series against the Yankees this weekend, but the club is still unsure whether it will be on Saturday or Sunday.

Verlander last pitched on Sunday against the Washington Nationals, but will receive at least one extra day of rest following Tuesday’s blockbuster trade. Cristian Javier is scheduled to start Thursday’s series opener at Yankee Stadium and rookie Hunter Brown will go on Friday, Baker said.

Baker also hinted that José Urquidy will make his return to the major-league rotation during the four-game series, but acknowledged the team hasn’t solidified its pitching plans. Inserting Urquidy and Verlander into the rotation could mean a move to the bullpen for either Brown or fellow rookie J.P. France.

“We got question marks all over the paper. We haven’t had any time to discuss it, really,” Baker said. “We got question marks. We have to talk to them first and figure out what’s best for them, best for us, best for our bullpen. If we might have to skip somebody, who has been in the bullpen before? Who knows how to warm up? A lot of things go into this decision. Most of the guys that are pitching well now were odd men out a few months ago, but they pitched their way into prowess here. We got a lot to do.”

(Top Photo of Valdez and Peña: Logan Riely / Getty Images)