Valdez reaches 1,000 career K's in frustrating loss to Nats

HOUSTON -- With the undermanned Astros’ offense struggling to score runs, the starting pitchers are being left with little margin for error these days. And the only run Astros starter Framber Valdez allowed in Monday’s 2-1 loss to the Nationals at Daikin Park -- Houston’s fifth loss in a row -- had him oozing with frustration postgame.

Valdez, who struck out 12 batters and gave up one run in six terrific innings en route to a no-decision, was critical of his own team’s defensive positioning on an RBI double to right in the sixth inning by Nationals first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, which scored Josh Bell from first base with the tying run.

With Bell on first and two outs, Lowe hit a sharp grounder past first baseman Christian Walker that went into right field. Astros right fielder Taylor Trammell, who was positioned in front of the 370-foot marker on the wall in right-center field, had to cover quite a bit of ground toward the line and got to the ball just before it hit the wall. The lumbering Bell scored easily from first base.

"It doesn't make sense that that was a double,” Valdez said through interpreter Otto Loor. “It doesn't make sense that the right fielder was playing center field with a lefty that was hitting. ... That should have been a single. That shouldn't have been a double, and the runner [Bell] should have been at third and not at home, so I felt a little bit uncomfortable about that.”

Lowe’s spray charts on fly balls against left-handed pitchers this year show most of them have been hit to left field or right-center and not pulled down the line, so the positioning was justified. But Valdez, one of baseball’s top groundball pitchers, said he thought he had gotten an out when Lowe hit the grounder to the right side.

“... And then when I saw it went through, I said, ‘It was going to be a hit,’” he said. “And then I saw the right fielder playing center field, and we have a center fielder for that. So I felt like the right fielder should have been playing right field, so I was uncomfortable with that.”

Lowe was thrilled with how it all worked in the Nationals’ favor against a stingy pitcher like Valdez.

“You know in a pitchers’ duel when you get on base any way possible, you have to do everything you can to score and [Bell] did,” he said. “So really grateful for that. Even though he's obviously not a burner, but he touched the plate at the right time and we were happy scoring more than them."

The Astros had won the previous 13 games started by Valdez, who recorded his 1,000th career strikeout when he whiffed Alex Call in the third inning. He reached that milestone in fewer innings (1,019 1/3) than any pitcher in franchise history.

What’s more, he’s the 10th Astros pitcher to reach 1,000 strikeouts and is now 86 strikeouts shy of tying Wandy Rodriguez for the most strikeouts by a southpaw in club history.

“I feel very happy and very proud,” Valdez said. “It means a lot to me -- another record to my career, to the team and to my family, as well.”

Astros reliever Bryan King gave up a solo homer to Riley Adams in the seventh that put the Nationals ahead, 2-1. Houston managed only four hits and lost a nine-inning game for only their second time in history despite their pitchers striking out 19 batters.

“Framber was outstanding, and our bullpen did a nice job -- 19 punchouts,” Astros manager Joe Espada said.

Nationals starter Brad Lord didn’t allow a baserunner until a two-out walk to Yainer Diaz in the fifth inning, and Mauricio Dubón doubled into the left-field corner on the next pitch to score Diaz.

It marked the first time since July 4 that the Astros had scored the first run of a game, snapping a 18-game streak of allowing the opposition to score first. They could have used a few more.