When the Astros needed him most, Framber came through.

Gordon Liang

10/20/2021

Coming off a crucial game four victory over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, the Astros gained everything back. Everything but fresh pitching that is. The offense was back with a nine run outburst. The defense was back. The bullpen hurled seven and two-third innings of shutout baseball to keep the Astros in the game. Production wise, all gears were kicking with the exception of starting pitching. However, the game of baseball extends beyond just who’s doing well and who’s not. The bullpen did great in game four but in doing so left a bulk of the relievers unavailable for game five.

The bullpen didn’t just cover seven and two-third innings on Tuesday night. The Astros relievers were also responsible for six and one-third innings the night before and in the two days preceding the off day, the bullpen pitched a combined 14 1/3 innings. The bullpen was already drained heading into Tuesday night and Zack Greinke only lasting one and one-third of an inning didn’t help.

As a matter of fact, it not only didn’t help the Astros, but Greinke’s short outing seemed to have been the last straw for the bullpen. Jake Odorizzi was the only Astro reliever heading into Wednesday night with multiple days of rest. Odorizzi threw 80 pitches in game two and manager Dusty Baker wanted to avoid using him before heading back to Houston. Houston’s two most reliable relievers Kendall Graveman and Ryan Pressly combined for 52 pitches on Tuesday night. Cristian Javier threw 57 pitches in three shutout innings in game four, Yimi Garcia threw 30 pitches in game three and Brooks Raley threw a total of 43 pitches in two days preceding Wednesday. This left Ryne Stanek and Blake Taylor as Houston’s best two options. Heading into game five, the Astros had yet to have a starting pitcher go past the third inning in the ALCS and if that pattern held up, a situation that couldn’t get any uglier was bound to do just that.

Enter Framber Valdez. The best pitcher in last year’s ALCS started his season with a fire but ever since the sticky stuff crackdown, seemed to always be searching for his groove. It took him a while to figure out his old self but he could not have picked a better time to do so. Houston was begging him to not only limit the runs, but also be efficient and go long into the game. Certainly a tall task for a pitcher who missed a good part of the season with a finger injury and had yet to pitch past five innings in the postseason.

Valdez didn’t care, he had it in him. With the fate of the bullpen and the season potentially on the line on Wednesday night, Valdez turned in his best outing all season. Valdez started the game with four perfect innings and when his perfect game bid broke in the fifth inning, he continued to do what he always does: induce ground balls. After hitting JD Martinez with a curveball he threw just two more strikes in the inning: one led to a Hunter Renfroe double play and the other was an Alex Verdugo groundout. Valdez had never gone eight innings in a game as a major leaguer until Wednesday night and he did it with utmost efficiency. Looking at Valdez’s line, one may not be impressed as he only racked up five strikeouts but what made him so great in game five was his Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP). After dominating the ALCS in 2020 with a combined 26 strikeouts, Valdez found his game three success in bad contact. The Red Sox put 20 balls in play against Valdez and only three had an Expected Batting Average (xBA) above .50. You need a minimum of three pitches to rack up a strikeout, but only one for a weak ball in play out. Valdez exploited that en route to a 92-pitch outing to give the Astros bullpen a much desperately needed two days rest (including the travel day on Thursday).

Stanek was the lone Astro reliever to be used as he covered the last three outs and put the finishing touches of a salient, tide changing 9-1 victory for the Houston Astros to put them within one win from a third World Series appearance in five years.