An Astros is accused of a bush-league maneuver — and this one doesn’t involve a trash can.
Ex-MLB pitcher Dallas Braden and plenty of others allege that Houston lefty Framber Valdez intentionally plunked his catcher Cesar Salazar with a pitch after some confusion moments before allowing the game-changing grand slam to Trent Grisham in the Yankees’ 7-1 win Tuesday night.
“(One hundred percent) intentional,” Braden tweeted above a clip of the controversial pitch. “Absolute trash behavior.”
Valdez denied through a translator that he intentionally plunked his catcher and added that he apologized to Salazar, who said he pushed the wrong button on PitchCom.
“It was not intentional,” Valdez said after allowing six runs in five innings.
“I called for a sinker and that’s the pitch I wanted. There was a lot of noise and that’s what I thought he wanted me to throw, but, no, it was not intentional.”
The supposed inflection point for this alleged teammate-on-teammate crime happened in the fifth inning with Grisham at the plate in a 2-0 game with the bases loaded and two outs.
As Valdez readied to throw his 1-0 pitch, it appeared he shook his head — as Braden noted in a breakdown — and Salazar then motioned for him to step off the mound.
Valdez, though, committed to the pitch — later saying that he specifically called that offering — and threw a 96-mph sinker that Grisham went the other way with for a game-changing grand slam.
The lefty appeared quite ticked after allowing the homer.
Two pitches later, Valdez fired a pitch that Salazar clearly did not expect and it hit off his protector’s chest in a jarring moment, with the ball careening off the catcher.
Braden noted this should not happen due to PitchCom, which allows the two to be on the same page.
“This is the era of PitchCom,” Braden said. “You can hear what’s coming, you know what’s coming, if you have any second guesses, you step off.”
When asked about how he communicated to Salazar that he wanted the sinker, Valdez said, “It wasn’t necessary,” before later noting that he did not hear the curveball choice due to the noise.
“That was just the pitch that I had in mind,” Valdez said. “He called for a curveball, but I was already in mind that I was going to throw a sinker. That’s what I threw, so hat’s what happened.”
Valdez did not help himself by immediately turning his back after the pitch hit his catcher, not even checking to see if was OK.
Salazar notably started at Valdez for a few moments after the pitch before pushing his mask upward and walking toward Valdez before throwing the ball to him.
Valdez “emphatically” spoke in Spaniah with Salazar in the clubhouse after the game, per MLB.com.
“We just got crossed up,” Valdez said through a translator.
“I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. When we went down to the dugout, I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that.”
Salazar didn’t accuse Valdez of any bad behavior, instead noting how many Yankees fan invaded Daikin Park for the important series.
“No, didn’t get crossed up,” Salazar said. “There was a good amount of Yankees fans, so it was pretty loud after the grand slam. Maybe my PitchCom wasn’t in the right spot, I pressed the wrong button, ya know?”
Tuesday’s outing marked yet another poor showing from the lefty ace while he heads toward free agency, with Valdez now 1-4 with a 5.66 ERA in his last seven starts.
He’s 12-8 with a 3.40 ERA spanning 27 starts this season.
The Astros still lead the Mariners by three games in the AL West and occupy the No. 3 seed in the AL.
“Heat of the moment got to us,” Salazar said. “He apologized after, he’s great. There wasn’t anything bad about it, just pressed the wrong button and I was expecting another pitch.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
