It was a great day to be an Astros fan as you got to see Framber Valdez carve up the A’s lineup to set a new Major League record for consecutive quality starts and the Astros offense explode for 11 runs as they took out the A’s in the later innings and reduced their magic number to two games to seal the American League West title in the 11-2 win.
Valdez came into the game with 24 consecutive quality starts and was looking to make history versus the Athletics. Valdez came out firing as he had four strikeouts to start the game. Valdez was fantastic all game going 6 innings, with seven strikeouts, allowing only four hits and two runs. He set the Major League single season record with 25 consecutive quality starts.
Offensively, the Astros really didn’t do much until the third inning. That’s when Yordan Alvarez had the bases loaded with one out and launched a 3 RBI double (his 23rd in 2022) to left field to make it 3-0 Astros. Alex Bregman soon followed with an RBI double (his 37th on the year) to left, driving in Alvarez to make it 4-0. Kyle Tucker flew out but advanced Bregman to third. Yuli Gurriel singled and drove in Bregman to make it 5-0. That forced out A’s starting pitcher Ken Waldichuk, who was replaced by Collin Wiles. Wiles was able to stop the bleeding for the A’s by grounding out Trey Mancini.
The A’s were able to get a man on base in the fourth inning via a throwing error by Jeremy Peña that was challenged but overturned. Valdez struck out Sean Murphy and Chad Pinder got caught in a double play to end the top of the inning.
The Astros offensive onslaught continued in the bottom of the fourth as Martin Maldonado drove in Chas McCormick, who also stole second base (his third of the year) to make it 6-0 Astros. The onslaught didn’t stop there as Peña drove in Maldonado to make it 7-0 Astros. If you’re an Astros fan, you’re happy as a clam right now because it’s one step closer to winning the division outright.
The A’s were able to get on the board in the sixth inning thanks to an RBI double by Dermis Garcia to make it 7-2 Astros. The Astros were not done yet scoring as they got on the board once again in the bottom of the inning as Alvarez had another RBI double (his 24th) off of new A’s pitcher Kirby Snead to make it 8-2 Astros.
Maldonado blasted his 13th home run of the year to make it 11-2 Astros to make things worse for the visiting A’s.
Up next: The Astros will play Tampa Bay tomorrow at 5 PM and the pitching matchup will be Luis Garcia (12-8, 4.04 ERA) on the mound for Astros vs. Drew Rasmussen (10-5, 2.77 ERA) for Tampa Bay.