Astros outpowered by Angels as Valdez stalls in 5th inning

Astros outpowered by Angels as Valdez stalls in 5th inning

mama said life was like a box of chocolate never know what you’re going to get just like farmer Valas who would have known that he would give up the three home runs and then seven runs in the fifth inning he doesn’t normally do that maybe I’ll have to ask J A why he did that but we’ll talk about this and more on this edition of the locked on Asos podcast jel Diaz this is lck on Astros hello and welcome to locked on Astros your daily Astros podcast here are your host Eric the man Heisman and BR htown wheelhouse [Music] chansy we are locked on Houston Astros and we hope that you join us for a daily locked on Astros podcast my name is Eric heising find me on X Eric talkr you can find me on um on basically everywhere but you can find the show at lockon Astros you can find Brett at htown willhouse and you can find him off tonight but he’ll be back tomorrow night but guys thank you for making lock on Astros podcast your first listen every day whether it’s on YouTube go ahead and subscribe to us go and make us your first listen on Apple Odyssey Spotify wherever you listen to your podcast go and check us out and guys have you seen prize picks prize picks is the best way to play Fantasy Baseball and if you did the more on rber Valdez pitching good game game in this game well you might not have one tonight but if you did um the Angels hitting a whole bunch of home runs well certain players I guess you might have done well but this episode is brought to you by prize pick the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize picks.com locked onl and use the code all locked all lowercase locked onl for the first deposit match up to $100 and thank you for making us your first listen Apple Odyssey Spotify wherever you listening podcast go and check out the lock on Astros podcast we’re your team Every Day become every day or go ahead and subscribe to us on YouTube go and give us a big fat thumbs up while you’re at it and go and check out Michael Connor on the lock on Astros postcast as well he does a great job after every game win or lose and the Astros are going to lose some games even when they have the best team that wins the World Series they’re going to lose some games and it’s just so happens they’re coming off this great streak where they’re they’re six and one at home and they they look like they’re rolling six and one and then they they’re up six-1 in this game ironically and rer Valdez in the fifth inning he did something that he has not done this year first of all he gave up a home run to a lefty this is uh he’s only given up two extra base hits to Lefty all season and he did that in the fifth inning but the fifth inning was just one of those uh yeah what the heck happened there and so he allowed seven runs in the fifth inning the Astros now 21 and 27 so they’re making forward progress just because they lose this game doesn’t mean that they can’t still win the series but uh the fifth inning was just terrible and it just I know everybody’s like well why didn’t um espa take him out in the fifth inning because he’s your Ace and you expect him to go out there you’re like well he doesn’t give up a lot of home runs he’s a ground ball pitcher and so he can’t give up another three-run Homer can he uh yes he did he had Shao and oape give up get three run homers and then Joe Adell had a another two-run Homer I believe so the Astros um were down eight to six at the time so they had a six to1 lead and then that was with the seven runs in that inning it was just crazy I think that was just a solo home run but uh yeah this is something that doesn’t happen the eight runs Allowed by Valdez ties his career high which came in seven Innings against the angels on September 6 in 2020 uh he did allow the three homers that’s the most he’s ever allowed in a game uh that’s in and that was in a matter of six batters so just put that in perspective what happened in today’s game is a nomal prer Valdez has uh I was looking at his game l before the show he’s P this is his seventh game and before this against the Mariners he allowed five runs he allowed two home runs that’s the only time he’s allowed home runs this year so for him to allow three home runs in the same game in the same inning this is something so rare and it’s just something that’s odd and so when he loses he loses bad and it’s like he just loses it and loses control and it honestly looked like batting practice them the one to ohap was uh no yeah I think it was oap it was a um it was a curveball hanging curveball the next one to Adele was a fast ball and it just looked like he was just kind of throwing it in there and yes he was hitting 99 miles per hour 98 miles per hour but he just didn’t have his great stuff in that inning and so sometimes your Ace is going to struggle but L don’t say oh from as he’s washed up in his last game against the a granted it was the ace seven Innings uh no runs eight strike outs and the game before that against the Tigers I know it’s the Tigers seven Innings two runs four strikeouts so he’s pitched some pretty good baseball since that Mariners game and so I don’t know if this is going to be a routine he’s GNA have two good games and then a bad game two good games a bad game I don’t know if that’s going to be a routine but I know a lot of people are like why didn’t Joe SP get him out sooner who would have known this crap was going to happen I think that they couldn’t get up a reliever fast enough once they realized what was going on and so I think that it just like literally it’s two pitches in between home runs you can’t respond quick enough and I I guess you could say well in between the three run homers you probably could have got up a reliever you saw that he was struggling he was struggling to get the outs yes I guess you could say that but uh it was seven runs in the fifth inning and after giving up the the hits in the first inning to allow the one run score he did set set down nine in a row but the five innings say 10 hits eight earn runs one walk Three strikeouts it just was not good and his ra right now is 4.32 so uh also the Astros have played 14 straight games their Bullpen is short because of ryel bonco on the uh suspension list so the bullpen already short you already had Seth Martinez being used in yesterday’s game and so Joe spot is knows the bullpen is on fumes so he’s trying to get as much as he can from his ace pitcher his ace pitcher and so he he gambled he lost and then so um I don’t want to talk too much about what happened I know that fromer Valdez it it sucked hopefully he can learn from this and figure out what happened was it mechanics was it uh just pitch selection what happened in the sequence but for some reason when um prer Valdez is bad against the Angels the Angels take advantage and who knew the Angels who are a bad team without Mike Trout without Anthony redone they’re they’re playing pretty good baseball and they had what four home runs in this game and so I think it was four um one two three four yes and then Rafael Montero gave up a home run as well and by that time it was just like okay here here’s the White Flag we’re done okay we’re done but the Astros to their credit they weren’t going to quit in ninth inning they’re trying to mount and comeback and after scoring two uh four runs in the second inning two runs in the the fourth inning uh to get to six1 six to1 lead the offense is like oh we got this rer Valdez on the mound and so no problemo right that was wrong so this game is on problemes and uh I give I’ll give yall some credit it’s a little bit on Joe spot for maybe not taking rmer Valdez out sooner but to V this his credit he did settle down and finally get that fifth out uh so if you’re doing your price fit that would be been your um what 5 time 3 15 outs pitching outs which would probably been way below what prize fix was offering so if you did the over you might have done good but uh yeah this game was just Helter Skelter it was just something that the Astros should have won but unfortunately they did not and so there were some uh good things that happen in this game Jose Altuve he did something he hasn’t done all year you had Macio Deon B basically hitting a bunt hits and then also pimping a home run yes pimping a home run that was pretty classic so we’ll talk about that in a second hey guys you have a product that you want to get out there you want to get out on Market but making those cold calls and trying to find somebody to sell your product that’s the hardest thing to do and so let me tell you about link in sales Navigator it’s an intelligent platform that helps professionals effectively Prospect and engage in high value customers you know why because everybody has a LinkedIn profile that’s right one billion members platform that’s how many people are in LinkedIn you are too so you can uh find the right people to communicate with communication is the big key here sales G Navigator gives you most upto-date first party data enabling tools to unlock conversation with the right people so right now you can try LinkedIn sales Navigator and get a 60-day free trial at linkedin.com lockon that is linkedin.com lockon for 60-day free trial let LinkedIn sales Navigator help you sell like a superstar today guys thank you for making locked on Astros podcast your first listen every day whether it’s on YouTube go and subscribe to us go and make us your first listen Odyssey Spotify wherever you listen to your podcast go and check us out you can also watch us on your Amazon Fire TV stick that is right just go and search the free channels app and you can go ahead and watch Brett and I doing the locked on Astros podcast on your big screen TV that’s right if you got a big projector you can watch us there as well so um I know that Valdez is fresh on everybody’s mind and hopefully he recovers because the Astros aren’t going anywhere without their big starters uh Jose or Kitty by the way before we move on to um Altuve uh he’s expected to make one more start I believe it’s going to be either um Friday or Saturday with the Space Cowboys so um once he makes that start he’s likely to come back to the rotation like Brett and I were talking about yesterday somebody’s going to be out of rotation so um no it’s not gonna be fromer VES but it’s going to be one of uh either Hunter brown or you have it’s going to be uh Spencer arti arti put his bet best foot forward and he showed that he should say I’m not I’m not even count what happened in seventh inning he’s a rookie he was stretched out a little bit too far uh but and the the hitters got to see um maybe the third time around but he’s showing that he’s a big leader and Hunter Brown looks like he might need to go back down and speaking going back down ronell Blanco actually um had a start with the Space Cowboys and some of the minor Leaguers took him deep so you had Trey cabbage hit a home run off of reyell Blanco and gray kessinger also hit a home run off of renell Blanco so he went three Innings about 50 pitches so like we worry we don’t worry about Christian Javier Justin Verlander uh what Jose or Kitt’s doing it’s more about just getting the work in so let’s not stress over ryal Blanco giving up that but he should be eligible to return back to the rotation you ready rep on Saturday so that’s good uh that’s good news there so Jose Altuve he’s probably one of the Astros he’s been one of the most Astro the Astros most consistent hitters all year he’s in the top of what three or four in terms of hits in terms of the major leagues but he did something that he has not done all year before that home run today he was batting 203 I believe with zero home runs and I think nine RBI something crazy like that with runners in scoring position so he hit a three on Homer today and it was a bomb when I say it was a bomb it was a no doubter it was 105.1 miles per hour off the bat 398 feet 35 launch angle that would have been a home run in any ballpark um so I think that that was great I know it was a was really in his eyes and a lot of people made fun about that but actually Jose Altuve is slugging 610 on elevated fastball since uh 2022 season that’s the third best in MLB um and The League average is 430 so when Altuve sees something at his eyes he loves to crush that ball so um I think that uh what Altuve is doing is he’s setting the tone yeah it wasn’t a lead off home run but he still um got the process going and so I think that so also dubon he had a home run and earlier in the game he had a hit that barely stayed fair and everybody was making fun about him he’s like well that’s going to look like a line drive later on or something but he crushed that ball and sometimes when Deon gets that gets a hold that ball he he can hit the home run like crazy and on this one U let me where’s the that cast I thought I just had it here um but I think it closed it but it was oh there it is dubon was 98.4 exit velocity distance was 372 with a 32 launch angle to the Crawford boxes so um altu was a little bit more Majestic but you don’t expect it from Debon and Debon was kind of doing a little pimping as he was walking around I blowing kisses to Dugout and everything and then when he gets back of course Alvarez is like um like putting up his muscles and they’re trying to do that they um elbow um elbow bump or something so it’s I love the Rel relationship those two guys and speaking of Alvarez he is hitting some line drives he’s getting some better hits recently so hopefully he breaks out of it because it looks like bregman is starting to cool down a little bit um I think that maybe moving him up I mean he’s been hitting okay recently but um I don’t think it’s going to really matter but he’s kind of going coming back to Earth a little bit Jeremy paa continues to hit well um Jer Diaz is fatting eighth coming into the season could you have expected gner Diaz be batting eth and then duban batting ninth and he had three hits so Diaz had two hits dubon had three hits so thankful for thankfully those three two guys were there because they got five hits between them um so Tucker had um he missed a couple home runs it looked like the Astros had had him timed but unfortunately a lot of them were foul or um they they fell a little bit short of the warning track so um I think that uh overall there’s some positives from the game like the Astros still got 10 hits uh they scored seven runs um runners in scoring position they were four for 10 that’s 400 so that’s impressive for a team that’s kind of struggled at times um but you also had some stolen bases paa had a stolen base Tucker had stolen B uh two stolen bases and basically the second second one at for third base wasn’t even challenged and so I think that we saw some positives in this game and so um Ryan Presley came back and so that’s some good news and the bullpen as a whole has been doing a lot better recently and I know uh we’ve been talking about how bad the bullpen has been especially the backend of the bullpen yes they have been bad but um the bullpen has allowed two earn runs in 27 innings in the last seven games that’s a 0.65 ra That’s not including today’s game um it it’s uh in in May it the bullpen ER is 2.37 um and the bullpen had a 4.90 ER coming into M so the bullpen is improving a little bit yes you had a extra run score today with Montero uh giving up the home run but overall the pull pin is making some positive strides Ryan PR Presley was out since last Tuesday but he made his first appearance with a thumb issue so it’s good to see him back in there and the fact that he didn’t need a IL stint um and somebody said um at least U Presley didn’t give up a run yes um that’s that is true so um yes I I’m mad about this game but at the same time you can’t do anything about a eight a seven run inning you can get pissed off about it but what good is it going to do I mean Valdez sucked in this game but what is it going to do I mean I I think that aspa could have taken him out earlier but by the time it all happened it happened so quickly he didn’t have time to uh to respond and I think as a rookie manager he’s going to have to learn okay this guy he gave up this three-run Homer let’s maybe start get somebody warming up in the bullpen and so yes in a way this is on a spot he should have done that but um I think that’s G to come with time he’s gonna have have some of these implosions where oh crap I should have taken out Hunter Brown I should have taken out Valdez I should have taking out Justin Verlander but until he gets that that kind of idea we’re GNA see some more of these and that’s the problem with having a rookie manager on a team that you want to be going to the World Series you’re going to have crap games like this and you can get pissed off and like that or you can just be like crap happens just like Forest Gump would say I can’t say the other word but uh yeah I’m upset about it and I was watching a game I’m like are you kidding me are you crap is this is bull you know what but there’s nothing I could say about it now we all know we all know what happened so there’s nothing more I can say about it but we do know some more uh some players are coming back and I do got to talk a little bit about Jose BR he’s coming back as well so we’ll talk about that in a second hey Astros fans the Astros are winning and you know what’s better than Astros winning how about you winning so prize picks is the best little app out there what you can do is before the game you can go lock in your picks you have to pick at least two players and if you go ah and pick before today’s game rmer Valdez is gonna pick it’s going to go ahead and have 18 pitching outs um and you go ahead and have like a player from another team hit 0.5 home runs more or less with both situations you could possibly win but in this game if you did the more on 18 pitching outs for fmer Bales you probably wouldn’t have won but that’s the fun it’s fanasy baseball where you can actually win some money today so go ahead and download the app today and use the code locked on MLB for the first deposit deposit match up to $100 and I like to play it you’ll like to play it too and go and check it out guys thank you for making lock on Astros podcast your first listen every day whether it’s on YouTube go a And subscribe to us go go ahead and give us a big fat thumbs up and if you’re on the road if you’re heading out of town like you’re going to Florida to watch Jose Bru actually he’s coming back to to town we’ll talk about that in a second but go and check out series 6m you could catch all the play-by-play action just go ahead on your app just go and search Astros and you can hear all the play byplay action and go and check out Michael Connor on the locked on Astros postcast as well and um go and make sure you subscribe to us and give us a make us your first listen every day so um I know a lot of people do not like this um Jose Bru possibly coming back when John Singleton is playing good defense playing Better Baseball uh but before we get to that let’s go ahead and talk about some updates uh ery will pitch one more rehab game this weekend which has McCormick he could be back as soon as tomorrow minana so uh you could have somebody going down I know that Brett thinks that Joey Ledo is here to stay so if that’s the case who would be going down so um there’s some options up here that could go down down but typically it’s the youngest player and Lio would be the guy so Jake Meers is playing great baseball and I don’t know who’s gonna be going down uh so also um you have ronell Blanco I already mentioned it he’s GNA be coming back as soon as Saturday that’s when he’s eligible to return uh and he did Pitch today to kind of set him up to come back on Saturday so uh Joe spot is going to have to make some interesting decision you have Blanco coming back you have Chaz coming back and so uh her Kitty is going to be coming back at some point too so there’s be some interesting uh decisions on the horizon and according and um Joe spot kind of confirmed what Dana Brown was saying on the pregame show and talking about yesterday that Jose Bru is likely coming back possibly as soon as this weekend versus the ace and so a lot of people are like no why the Astros are winning why would you bring Jose Bru back he is terrible you should trade him first of all you can’t trade him for anything right now he has zero trade value especially for how much money he’s making he’s in a second year of a three-year 58.5 million uh contract and I didn’t realize how good a season he had last year he batted 237 with 18 home runs and 90 RBI I guess those 90 RBI kind of snuck up on me but uh that was in 141 games this year and um Singleton has been uh has had a 702 Ops entering Mondays game with four home runs um so uh Singleton’s been playing much better baseball so the question is why bring him up if Singleton’s playing better and the Astros are playing uh better and so Joe SP says well he’s actually looked really good I saw all the video and reports from our coordinators I like the changes he’s made to swing his the bats have also been pretty good comp competitive and hitting the ball hard the plan is if he clears um the next couple of days you play a few a few rehabs games like Dana said everything looks good he’ll join us this weekend so he’s probably gonna play some game with the space cowboy some games with the Space Cowboys uh so we’ll see what happens and as B says he has checked a lot of boxes we want him to check number one his swing decisions his swing mechanics he’s hitting ball really hard he’s moving very well and he’s been able to repeat that swing and every day every bat so he looks much be being in a much better offensive position also mental mentally he’s in much better position that’s another area that we just wanted him to clear his mind um and we feel that he’s getting closer so uh there’s going to be a lot of decisions uh to be made over the next few days so the the question is does Joey L peredo survive all these moves because you’re going to have to activate Jose bra and you’re gonna have to also activate Chaz McCormick and why um this is why spot says I’m gonna talk to Jose when he gets here but I do want to say for us all to see the adjustments he’s made and get him back going he’s going to have to play if he agreed to go down there make those adjustments we’re going to have to play him to get the results so once he gets up here we’ll talk and we’ll figure out the best way to help him to win games with all the the games we need to win we need all hands on deck and he thinks that Jose Bru can be the same player he was last year so you can’t just hide him I see a lot of comments in the chat about well just hide him in Triple A you can’t do that um once you go ahead and put him in rehab you only have technically 20 days to bring them up I think the Astros are only going to use two days of rehab and that’s pretty much all they’re going to use so in this situation I think we’re going to see with the Astros now five games behind the Mariners because the Mariners did beat the Yankees today uh so and the Rangers were off today so the Astros do have some business to do but um they did get some reinforcements as a minor league free agent and everybody’s like who who who uh I wouldn’t get too excited this is somebody that the uh Pirates had DFA and so um this is a five-year vet um this uh I don’t know if he hasn’t even pitched for the Pirates this year but um he has a career 430 ER 36 and 37 I’m talking about the great left-hander which is Eric laow and so he’s um what he is I how old is he I think he’s like 30 or something but he’s um the last time he pitched was with the Brewers back in 2023 he was 4- six with a 6.56 er um that the season before he was 11- seven with a 3.69 ER with 29 starts that season so he was a great starting pitcher um and he wasn’t really a strikeout pitcher kind of average a strikeout per inning but he’s a guy that the Astros could just kind of stash in the minor leagues for a little bit if you need him he’s a veteran guy and so I think that he’s been kind of used as a reliever um maybe in he might be a starter I don’t know exactly too much details but he’s been signed by the Astros for 1.5 million assuming he makes the as the teams and that’s per rated of course um so he’s gonna he has opt outs for July 1 and August 1 according to sources so um and that’s from Ari Alexander so uh but he is just a deaf option so he’s a left-hander and so it’s just another option in case they need it down the stretch because you can never have enough uh pitching options so he’s not somebody I’m not I don’t think anybody’s gonna I don’t think he’s gonna make impact with the Astros but if he does he’s just a veteran piece so um there’s lot that we can discuss um but I know a lot of people are still kind of mad about this game but you’re going to lose some games and the Astros have been playing some good baseball recently there’s still some positive things fromer Valdez had one bad inning this is probably his worst start of his career I know he’s already allowed eight runs before but the way he did it five run seven runs in the fifth inning three home runs basically I I want to say it was almost six or seven hits in that inning this is something that fromer valz does not do he might allow a home run here maybe a couple Innings later home run there but if you’re going to get him it’s with walks or with singles and doubles you don’t typically see what happened today so I don’t know if I’m overly concerned long term about the sprw valz issue but it does put a lot of pressure on tomorrow starting pitcher to really go out there and handle a team that’s not supposed to be this good uh so who’s on there on the mound Christian Javier and Christian Javier is coming off a pretty good rebound start where he um had eight strikeouts and uh dealt against the Brewers and so he needs to do the same thing against the angels and it’s going to be Griffin Canyon uh for the Angels he’s got two and four record with a 5.21 e and uh Alvarez has hit a home run against him bregman has hit a home run is batting 600 and Diaz has hit a home run batting 333 and dubon is batting 400 against Canon so who to watch out for for Javier co uh what is it Calhoun is um Willie I thought it was Willie Willie kahoun is has two home runs off of Javier and um Kevin po has a home run off of Javier as well but most the other hitters are struggling a little bit against Christian Javier so tomorrow’s game has got to be a little bit better pitched and I think the Astros just need to get back to the basics so Brett and I will be back tomorrow and we’ll hopefully have a better game to talk about but guys thank you for making a lock on Astros podcast your first listen every day make sure you go and subscribe to us make this your first listen Apple Odyssey Spotify and we will see you tomorrow and go STS a [Music]

The Astros were rolling on the homestand and in the game, were up 6-1 going into the 5th inning. Unfortunately, Framber Valdez gave up 3 homers and 7 runs in the inning. To say what happened was rare, but Valdez normally doesn’t do this.

Jose Altuve also did something for the first time this season. Astros minor leaguers have batting practice off Ronel Blanco, when is he eligible to return? Jose Abreu, the justification for the possible return. They sign veteran lefty Eric Lauer to a minor league deal. Join Eric Huysman and Brett Chancey for the Locked On Astros podcast.

Locked On Astros is a daily podcast about the Houston Astros, hosted by Eric Huysman and Brett Chancey. It is part of the Locked On Podcast Network.

Be sure to subscribe to Locked On Astros on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come back every weekday to spend your commute listening to the latest Astros news and notes. Thanks for listening, and tell your friends!

We now have a YouTube channel, so go subscribe to that and help us reach 20k subscribers!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9fXhBb2-ZTiPwk7WNwYjzQ
https://linktr.ee/LockedOnAstros

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…

🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOAstros?sid=YouTube
Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnMLB
#Astros #HoustonAstros #MLB
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
LinkedIn
Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDON.

Policygenius
Check life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.

PrizePicks
Go to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100!

FanDuel
Make Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get started.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)