{"id":101451,"date":"2025-07-29T07:09:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/101451\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T07:09:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T07:09:31","slug":"houston-ace-framber-valdez-criticizes-defensive-shift-in-astros-loss-to-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/101451\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston ace Framber Valdez criticizes defensive shift in Astros&#8217; loss to Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Houston ace Framber Valdez expressed frustration about the defensive positioning on a play in the sixth inning Monday night that led to the only run he allowed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/astros-nationals-score-3c1d327d75bd237944313562188e1405\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Astros\u2019 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Astros\u2019 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There were two outs in the sixth when Valdez walked Josh Bell. Nathaniel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/gameday\/nationals-vs-astros\/2025\/07\/28\/776969\/final\/video\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Lowe\u2019s groundball double to the right field corner scored Bell;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Lowe\u2019s groundball double to the right field corner scored Bell<\/a> and tied the game at 1.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Valdez wasn\u2019t happy that right fielder Taylor Trammell was shifted halfway to center field instead of in right field on the play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw the right fielder playing center field and, you know, we have a center fielder for that,\u201d Valdez told reporters in Spanish through a translator. \u201cI feel like the right fielder should have been playing right field. I was uncomfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Valdez was asked if he addressed the positioning with the coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have to ask the coaches about that,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like baseball is a game of common sense. With me as a lefty pitcher, they don\u2019t hit a lot of fly balls against me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Valdez allowed three hits and a run while tying a season high with 12 strikeouts in six innings to become the 10th pitcher in franchise history to reach 1,000 career strikeouts (1,007).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/astros-nationals-score-3c1d327d75bd237944313562188e1405\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Riley Adams hit a solo homer in the seventh inning;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Riley Adams hit a solo homer in the seventh inning<\/a> to give Washington the win and extend Houston\u2019s skid to a season-high five games.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Houston ace Framber Valdez expressed frustration about the defensive positioning on a play in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":101452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[7951,54709,11315,4345,65951,65953,28446,65952,358,3187,1291],"class_list":{"0":"post-101451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-center-field","10":"tag-framber-valdez","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-josh-bell","13":"tag-riley-adams","14":"tag-sixth-inning","15":"tag-taylor-trammell","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-tx","18":"tag-washington-nationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114935271450675846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}