BOSTON -- Not even ace lefty Framber Valdez, who hadn’t lost a game in more than three months, or star shortstop Carlos Correa, who walloped his first home run since being traded back to Houston on Thursday, could rescue the Astros from their tailspin Sunday afternoon.
The Astros, who came to Boston riding the emotional high of re-acquiring franchise icon Correa and two other players at the Trade Deadline, fell flat at Fenway Park, getting swept by the Red Sox with a 6-1 loss Sunday. Houston has lost eight of its last 10 games with the Mariners and Rangers creeping up behind them in the standings in the American League West.
“We just couldn’t get a lot going on offensively the whole entire series,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “It’s one that we have to put behind us quickly and get ready for Miami.”
The additions of Correa in a trade from the Twins, outfielder Jesús Sánchez from the Marlins and infielder Ramón Urías from the Orioles improved the Astros’ lineup, but Houston managed only five runs in three games against a surging Red Sox team that’s 14-2 at home since June 30. Houston had three hits Sunday.
Correa’s fourth-inning homer, which went a Statcast-estimated 411 feet over the Green Monster, gave the Astros the lead, but the bottom of the inning was a disaster with Boston sending nine batters to the plate and scoring six times. It was the second-most runs Valdez has allowed in an inning in his career.
“It was a weird inning, but as you know with Framber those innings happen with a lot of bad luck,” Correa said. “He’s a groundball pitcher and when the ball doesn’t get hit right at people, then things can unravel when that happens, but it doesn’t happen too often for him. Flush it out and be ready for the next start. He was exceptional besides that inning. His stuff was really good.”
Everything that could go wrong did for Valdez in the inning -- he gave up five hits, walked a batter, balked in a run, threw a wild pitch, made a fielding error and was hurt by a passed ball by catcher Yainer Diaz. Both the wild pitch and the passed ball came on sinkers that ran inside to right-handers and couldn’t be handled by Diaz.
“I feel like it was very frustrating for me, that inning,” Valdez said. “I feel like they ran with a little bit of luck. There were some plays that I feel like even [they] couldn’t believe that they executed and they did. But I finished strong in the fifth and sixth inning.”
Considering how thin the Astros’ starting pitching is because of injuries, winning games when Hunter Brown or Valdez take the mound is paramount. Valdez had won his previous 10 decisions and hadn’t lost a game since May 2, posting a 1.84 ERA in his previous 14 starts, including 12 quality starts.
Valdez did get former teammate Alex Bregman, now the Red Sox starting third baseman, to ground out twice and line out once in his first time facing him.
“It was a little bit uncomfortable because he was my teammate for four years, but I was able to execute and attack the zone and get him the three times I faced him,” Valdez said.
The subpar fundamentals were limited to the fourth inning Sunday, with the Astros making some baserunning gaffes in Friday’s loss. Houston was 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position for the series.
“We’re a team, we take pride in our fundamentals and how clean we play the game and I just think we’ve done a better job and we have to do a better job,” Espada said. “I don’t think we played our cleanest the last three days.”
Good news is on the horizon for the Astros, who are set to get starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti back in the rotation Tuesday or Wednesday in Miami. He made only two starts before fracturing his finger in a freak batting practice mishap in early April.
Cristian Javier, who had Tommy John surgery last year, could be back a week later. Those would be big additions for a team that lost two other members of its rotation -- Hayden Wesneski and Ronel Blanco -- to Tommy John surgery early in the season.