Framber labors in rare off outing against Mariners

HOUSTON -- Nitpicking left-hander Framber Valdez's outing on Saturday night against the Mariners would be an exercise in futility, considering the Astros didn’t get a runner past second base and had no answer for Seattle pitcher Logan Gilbert.

There wasn’t much Valdez could have done to save Houston on this night.

Valdez wasn’t at his best in his second start since coming off the injured list (elbow), but Gilbert dominated by throwing eight scoreless innings to send the Astros -- one of baseball’s best home offenses -- to their second shutout loss of the season, 5-0, at Minute Maid Park.

“He’s got an explosive fastball, he’s got the slider,” manager Joe Espada said of Gilbert. “If you don’t get him in the zone, he’s a really tough guy to hit. We just expanded the zone today against him. He’s got some really good stuff. You’ve got to tip your hat to him.”

Valdez allowed five earned runs on nine hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings, and had only one 1-2-3 inning, which came in the third. The Mariners put the first two runners on base in the first, second and fourth innings, and had the leadoff hitter on base against Valdez in five of six innings.

Still, he was able to limit damage before giving up a solo homer to Luis Urías to start the fifth and a two-run shot by Cal Raleigh in the sixth that made it 5-0.

“I thought he threw the ball really well [except] the cutter to Raleigh,” Espada said. “He got some ground balls. His stuff looked really good. I think he made his pitches when he needed to.

“I think the story here is we just couldn’t get much going offensively. That’s what I think about today’s game.”

Valdez got ground-ball double plays in the first and second innings to limit damage, but the Mariners tried to lay off his sinker and wait for pitches up in the zone. Six of Seattle’s nine hits off Framber were to the opposite field in a lineup with nine right-handed hitters.

“They hit some balls well,” Valdez said. “I think they executed the plan they wanted to execute and I fell behind some hitters, so I think that affected me as well.”

The start was the 12th of Valdez’s career (14th appearance), including the postseason, against Seattle. It was only the second time the Mariners beat him -- he’s 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA against them -- and he had only two home runs allowed in his first 71 2/3 innings against them.

"We've faced him a lot,” Raleigh said. "He's gotten us a few times, we've gotten him a few times, so it's always a battle. He's really a good pitcher, so I thought we did a pretty good job with our approach tonight. It was a pretty good [game plan] today. We kept it simple, didn't really stray from it. We took our knocks the other way.

“I think that was the biggest thing you saw today was guys going the other way, which was huge."

The only hit Gilbert allowed through six innings was a bunt single -- yes, a bunt single -- by Yordan Alvarez in the first inning. Alex Bregman followed with a walk before Gilbert sent down 16 of the next 17 batters. He was pulled after eight innings and 96 pitches.

Gilbert is the first pitcher to complete eight innings against the Astros this year.

With Cristian Javier set to come off the IL, perhaps as early as next weekend, Houston is likely to go with a six-man rotation during a stretch in which the club plays 29 games in 30 days beginning on Tuesday.

If there’s a bright side for Valdez it’s that he’s part of a rotation that’s getting healthier each week.

“The arm feels good,” he said. “It’s doing what it’s supposed to and I need to continue making adjustments bit by bit.”