Framber Valdez, in a word, was “nasty” against the Rangers on Thursday.
That did not surprise Rangers Skipper Chris Woodward when he spoke about the 28-year-old lefty who kept Texas off the scoreboard in his seven innings of work and ran his season record to 11-4 following a 7-3 victory at Minute Made Park in Houston.
“He was what we thought he was,” Woodward told MLB.com after the loss. “His ball was moving, and his curveball was good. He got a lot of weak contacts. We were able to pressure him late but just couldn’t seem to get that big hit off of him.”
Valdez mowed eight Rangers batters down via strikeout in the win and pitched seven innings of scoreless baseball, allowing no runs, four hits, and walking a lone Ranger.
Rangers’ rookie Cole Ragans didn’t fare as well. The 24-year-old lefty– coming off his MLB debut last week– was knocked around by the Astros’ prolific batters and pitched 4.1 innings in which he yielded five earned runs on six hits, walked three, struck out one, and allowed two home runs. Ragans record drops to 0-1 in the season and for his career.
With the game all but over, Texas stitched together three late runs in the contest. Marcus Semien belted his 17th homer of the season, and both Nathaniel Lowe (the only Rangers with two hits in the loss) and Leody Taveras picked up RBI, while the team went just 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position. (Houston was 2-for-4 under the same circumstances.)
Laredo native John King pitched 1.2 innings in relief of Ragans and limited Houston to one hit and struck out another, while Garrett Richards tossed the final two innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and fanning three.
Texas returns to Arlington on Friday night to host the Mariners in a three-game series. Probable starting pitchers for the contests are George Kirby (3-3, 3.40) for Seattle and Josh Sborz (0-0, 5.87) for Texas. The first 15,000 fans in attendance at Globe Life Field will receive a Rangers 50th Anniversary Tote Bag.
