Framber's quality start loss a microcosm of 2024 troubles

CHICAGO -- For Framber Valdez, the 2024 season has been a battle to find some semblance of consistency. The Astros' southpaw has put together stretches featuring the kinds of starts that helped him earn back-to-back All-Star nods, but with a few uncharacteristic blemishes peppered in between.

In a sense, one could argue Tuesday night’s outing at Guaranteed Rate Field served as a perfect microcosm of his campaign to date.

Valdez’s start during Houston’s 2-0 loss to the White Sox provided moments where it seemed a complete game might be in play, along with innings where his control quickly vanished. Yet despite his sometimes tumultuous night on the mound -- he issued five walks -- Valdez still held Chicago to two runs in six innings, providing an opportunity to win that the Astros’ offense was unable to cash in on.

But for Valdez, the outing itself was a perplexing performance in a season that’s featured a handful of them.

"I honestly don’t really have an answer,” Valdez said of his uneven night, via interpreter Jenloy Herrera. “I don’t really know what happened. I thought I was trying to do everything the same those few innings. I was trying just to attack the strike zone."

It’s the kind of confusion you might find when looking across Valdez’s 2024 game log. He followed up a rocky May 4 outing against Seattle by throwing a pair of seven-inning gems. From there, Valdez allowed eight earned runs in five innings against the Angels, gave up a combined five earned across 22 innings over his next three starts and then was chased from last Wednesday’s outing in San Francisco after surrendering five runs in four frames.

This same sort of back-and-forth between command and chaos was on display Tuesday night. Valdez coasted through the first two innings, allowing one hit and striking out three on 24 pitches. Come the third inning, it was as if a different pitcher had taken the mound.

Valdez opened the frame by loading the bases on a single sandwiched between a pair of walks, a sequence that also featured a wild pitch and manager Joe Espada ejected from the Astros' dugout. But just as it appeared as though the game was on the verge of breaking open, Valdez stepped off the mound and looked toward second base, where Jose Altuve was motioning for him to take a breath.

"That’s something that definitely helped me,” Valdez said of Altuve’s reassurance. "Sometimes as a pitcher the game speeds up, and sometimes you don’t even notice. So he was able to bring me back, calm me down a little bit more.”

Valdez quickly course-corrected, allowing one run on a forceout before inducing an inning-ending double play. An eight-pitch fourth seemed to indicate he was back in control, but things unraveled again in the following frame.

Valdez again loaded the bases, at one point throwing 11 consecutive balls. Sensing his pitcher was on the ropes, Altuve signaled for a meeting on the mound. And once again, it worked wonders, as Valdez evaded trouble and allowed only another RBI forceout.

"That’s the kind of leadership that Jose brings to this club,” Espada said. "The mound visit, he also does it in the dugout all the time. 'Just keep pitching your game, give us a chance to win.’ That’s just Jose’s leadership that we need."

For all the trouble Valdez ran into in the third and fifth, he still managed to escape with his seventh quality start in 12 outings, keeping Houston in the game when twice it seemed like things were on the verge of a blowout. Yet the Astros, playing without Kyle Tucker (right shin contusion) and Yordan Alvarez (personal matter) were held in check throughout the night by White Sox rookie starter Jonathan Cannon.

“We all wish we could have [Tucker and Alvarez] here, but they’re just not,” Espada said. “We’ve just got to find a way to grind through it. We’re very much capable of scoring runs with those guys not in the lineup, we have some guys that can get it done. We just did not get it done today.”

That Houston was still within arm’s reach of a victory was a credit to Valdez’s ability to dodge jams left and right. But the night also served as a prime example of what he has been trying to navigate through over the first few months of the season. Just as things appear to be under his control, adversity seems to come out of nowhere.

"Thankfully I was able to get out of it just allowing one and one,” Valdez said, "but I thought I could’ve done a lot more."