{"id":67720,"date":"2025-05-31T02:41:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T02:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/67720\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T02:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T02:41:31","slug":"yainer-diazs-walkoff-home-run-backs-framber-valezs-three-hitter-as-astros-beat-rays-2-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/67720\/","title":{"rendered":"Yainer Diaz’s walkoff home run backs Framber Valez’s three-hitter as Astros beat Rays 2-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Yainer Diaz homered with two outs in the ninth inning and Framber Valdez pitched a three-hitter to lead the Houston Astros to a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.<\/p>\n

The score was tied 1-1 entering the ninth. Garrett Cleavinger (0-1) struck out Jose Altuve and Christian Walker before Diaz sent a 98 mph sinker into the seats in right field to set off a wild celebration.<\/p>\n

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Valdez (5-4) gave up a homer to Jose Caballero in the first inning and tied a season high with nine strikeouts in his ninth career complete game and second this season.<\/p>\n

Houston trailed 1-0 when Jake Meyers doubled to center field with no outs in the eighth inning and scored on Zach Dezenzo’s single on a grounder. Dezenzo moved to second on a throwing error by second baseman Curtis Mead on the play.<\/p>\n

Caballero homered on Valdez\u2019s second pitch to give the Rays an early lead. The homer was just his second this season and the first since April 9.<\/p>\n

Rays starter Ryan Pepiot allowed two hits in 6 2\/3 scoreless innings in his second strong start after he threw seven scoreless innings in his last start.<\/p>\n

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Valdez retired 12 straight before Jonathan Aranda singled on a chopper to first base to start the fifth. Valdez got right back on track, striking out Danny Jansen before Mead grounded into a double play to end the inning.<\/p>\n

Valdez sailed through the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, sitting down nine straight batters with three strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Taylor Walls singled with one out in the ninth before Caballero walked. Walls was caught stealing third and Valdez retired Yandy D\u00edaz on a groundout to complete his night.<\/p>\n

Walker singled with two outs in the seventh to chase Pepiot. Kevin Kelly took over and was greeted with a single by Diaz. The Astros came away empty when Kelly struck out Cam Smith.<\/p>\n

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Key moment<\/p>\n

The home run by Diaz allowed Houston to rally after losing the series opener 13-3.<\/p>\n

Key stat<\/p>\n

Valdez needed just 83 pitches to complete the game.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Rays RHP Zack Littell (4-5, 3.97 ERA) opposes Astros LHP Colton Gordon (0-0, 3.52) on Saturday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Yainer Diaz homered with two outs in the ninth inning and Framber Valdez pitched a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,100,10267,6524,4789,79,1099,54,452,307,817,1965,16408,4,1086,297,1956,2550,68,2551,2549,5521,5355,3348,453,5170],"class_list":{"0":"post-67720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-christian-walker","10":"tag-colton-gordon","11":"tag-curtis-mead","12":"tag-danny-jansen","13":"tag-framber-valdez","14":"tag-garrett-cleavinger","15":"tag-houston-astros","16":"tag-jake-meyers","17":"tag-jonathan-aranda","18":"tag-jose-altuve","19":"tag-jose-caballero","20":"tag-kevin-kelly","21":"tag-mlb","22":"tag-ninth-inning","23":"tag-rays","24":"tag-ryan-pepiot","25":"tag-tampa-bay","26":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","27":"tag-tampabay","28":"tag-tampabayrays","29":"tag-taylor-walls","30":"tag-yainer-diaz","31":"tag-yandy-diaz","32":"tag-zach-dezenzo","33":"tag-zack-littell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114600141379933164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}