Houston pitcher Framber Valdez insists he didn’t intentionally cross up his catcher and hit him with a ball on purpose during the Astros’ 7-1 loss to the New York Yankees on Wednesday night.
Valdez gave up a grand slam in the fifth inning of the contest at Daikin Park. Before Valdez served up the homer, catcher Cesar Salazar tried to get his pitcher to step off the mound just before he threw the pitch. Valdez ignored that call and threw the pitch anyways, which led to Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham hitting it out of the park. The grand slam gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead at the time.
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During the next at-bat, Valdez drilled Salazar in the chest with a pitch that appeared to get away from both of them. Salazar looked stunned, and eventually took his helmet off and stared at Valdez hard from home plate. Valdez immediately turned his back to Salazar and carried on.
Valdez insisted after the game that it was accidental.
Both he and Salazar were called into the manager’s office after the contest, and Valdez said he apologized to Salazar.
“It was a pitch I wanted to throw. I called for that pitch. I wasn’t able to locate it,” Valdez said through an interpreter, via Astros reporter Will Kunkel. “Then afterwards, we just got crossed up. Afterwards, I told him I was sorry.”
Salazar backed that up, saying he and Valdez “have a really good relationship.”
“There was a good amount of Yankees fans, so it was pretty loud after the grand slam,” Salazar said. “Maybe my pitch count wasn’t in the right spot, so I pressed the wrong button, you know.”
Even though it didn’t look great in the moment, both players insist that it was simply a misunderstanding in a tense situation.
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The Yankees rolled to the six-run win, thanks both to Grisham’s grand slam and a pair of home runs from Jazz Chisholm Jr. That pushed them to 77-61 on the season, and has them 2.5 games back from the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East race.
Valdez, in his eighth year with the Astros, holds a 3.40 ERA and a 12-8 record in 27 games this season. The Astros, who have lost three of their last four, still hold a three-game lead in the AL West race despite the latest loss.