MIAMI -- One out away from what could have been an impressive eight-inning start, Framber Valdez reached his biggest roadblock of the night.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Valdez gave up back-to-back homers to Jorge Soler and Luis Arraez that put away the Astros in a 5-1 loss to the Marlins in Monday evening’s series opener at loanDepot park.

Even so, as Valdez walked back to the visitors’ dugout on the first-base line with his head slumped after the Astros called on Hector Neris for the final out of the frame, many of the Houston fans in the stands stood to applaud his impressive effort.

“Framber was outstanding,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Until the eighth inning -- those two homers -- he was good. We had to ride him as long as we could. … And his pitch count was still relatively low at that time. He was throwing the ball well, and our bullpen was a little upside down. We had question marks, or [were going to] try to stay away from [Bryan] Abreu, [Kendall] Graveman, [Rafael] Montero and [Ryne] Stanek, so he gave us what we needed.”

Entering the eighth, Valdez had allowed four hits and two runs (one earned). That pair of runs came in the third, when the Marlins hit back-to-back doubles and Jon Berti stole third, then came home on a passed ball. All told, Valdez held Miami scoreless in all but the third and eighth innings while striking out four and allowing just one walk.

Catcher Martin Maldonado thought Valdez threw just two “bad” pitches out of his 95 offerings (35 of which came in his final 1 2/3 frames): A 1-2 cutter to Berti that resulted in his RBI double in the third, and the 1-2 missed-location cutter that Soler hit for his eighth-inning homer.

“[His] sinker was down, it was moving the way it [should move],” Maldonado said. “His curveball was nasty, his cutter was nasty, some good changeups. So he had two bad pitches to two good hitters in the game.”

Valdez, however, did not agree with Maldonado’s assessment.

“I evaluate that [as] 10% of I think what I’m capable of,” Valdez said via team interpreter Jenloy Herrera. “It didn’t really feel good. It wasn’t a good outing. … I think I started well -- I was getting a lot of ground balls, tried to stay focused the whole game. But towards the end there I made a couple bad decisions, couple bad pitches, and obviously put the team in a bad position to try to win.

“I look at it as -- it’s just how I finish. I didn't finish strong, didn't execute a couple pitches there at the end. And to me, I think that I didn't have a good outing, I didn’t finish strong there.”

While Valdez might have labeled the outing as “disastrous” -- a direct quote that needed no translation -- his stat line only tells part of the story. One of Valdez’s struggles this season has been with opponents elevating his pitches. That’s in part why he’s allowed more homers this year (15 through 23 starts vs. 11 through 31 starts in 2022). And that almost directly correlates to his pitch velocity.

As the velo of his sinker and cutter increases, Valdez doesn’t get as much downward break. Instead of slipping underneath bats, those pitches become easier for batters to hit. That was less of an issue on Monday night than it has been in some of his previous starts, a sign things are improving and that Valdez is continuing to right the ship after struggling in July (with a 7.29 ERA over four starts vs. a 3.42 ERA in three August outings).

“Yeah, that was much less of an issue,” Baker said of elevated pitches. “The breaking ball didn’t quite get under the bat and the fastball in, that was a good pitch. [Arraez] is leading the league in hitting. I mean, he can hit. Sometimes, as much as we don't want to do it, you’ve got to give the hitters credit sometimes, too, because it’s not that easy to just keep getting good hitters out.

“If there’s any consolation, [Valdez] saved my bullpen for the next couple of days, and we got some of [the Marlins’ left-handed relievers] out of the game possibly tomorrow, so it all leans in our favor tomorrow.”