Mistakes on mound, basepaths prove costly for Astros

Hader surrenders go-ahead homer in the ninth to spoil Framber's brilliant start

April 3rd, 2024

HOUSTON -- The baserunning gaffes the Astros made in the final two innings on Tuesday night would have been a footnote had closer been able to record one more out. That’s all that separated the Astros from consecutive shutout wins and Hader’s first save with his new team.

The feel-good story turned disastrous in a hurry when Hader hung a 1-1 slider with two outs in the ninth inning to Blue Jays outfielder Davis Schneider, who crushed it and sent the ball sailing high over the left-field wall at Minute Maid Park for a two-run homer that sent Toronto to a 2-1 come-from-behind win.

“It comes down to that one pitch,” said Hader, who was making his first save opportunity after signing a five-year, $95-million deal with the Astros in January.

The homer, which sent the Astros to their fifth loss in six games to start the season, denied left-hander his first win of the year following a terrific start. Valdez threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed six hits. More importantly, he didn’t walk a batter.

“No one wants to give up two runs, especially when you’ve got Framber doing what he’s done and going as long as he did and throwing an unbelievable start -- not being able to get him that win is unfortunate,” Hader said. “That’s not what I want to do, go up there and make mistakes, and the one mistake I made, I paid. It sucks.”

It was the Blue Jays' first go-ahead homer in the ninth inning since Marcus Semien on Sept. 3, 2021, against Oakland.

“It was one of those sliders that I saw up and away and it came down in the middle,” Schneider said.

Still, it was a much-needed bounceback effort from Valdez, who had a career-high-tying six walks in 4 2/3 innings in Houston’s season-opening loss to the Yankees on Thursday. He generated 13 groundouts, including a pair of double plays, which was one way from his career high of 14.

“I think the concentration and just being a lot more disciplined to where I was throwing my pitches and throwing my pitches in the strike zone,” Valdez said when asked what changed from his first outing. “I was just throwing a lot more strikes.”

The Astros’ offense could only muster a fourth-inning homer by Jose Altuve, though they had a couple of late chances. They were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and made a pair of baserunning errors in the eighth and ninth that loomed large.

Altuve led off the eighth with a double that just missed landing in the Crawford Boxes, putting him at second base as a critical insurance run. He was at third with two outs when he was thrown out by catcher Alejandro Kirk at the base after breaking about one-fourth of the way down the third-base line following a pitch to Yainer Diaz.

Altuve said he was trying to time up the throw from the catcher back to the pitcher, perhaps in an effort to bolt for home.

“I was trying to make something happen,” Altuve said. “I know after you make that kind of play, you just say to yourself, ‘What are you doing?’ It’s the wrong situation and now Diaz, who’s probably our best hitter right now, was at the plate. I think that’s a big mistake by me right there.”

The Astros, trailing by a run in the ninth, threatened again when Diaz beat out an infield single to start the ninth inning. Jake Meyers pinch-ran at first base and was tagged out when he stumbled and fell onto the dirt trying to steal second with one out and Chas McCormick at the plate.

“I screwed it up,” Meyers said. “That’s kind of what happened. Wish I could have pulled through for the team, but I didn’t. I’m going to get them next time.”

Astros manager Joe Espada said Meyers had a green light to steal because he wanted to get the tying run into scoring position.

“It was kind of a slide step [by reliever Chad Green], so I was hoping he would shut it down there,” Espada said. “We wanted him to get a jump if he was still 1.4 or 1.5 [seconds] that Chad Green normally takes delivering the ball. I really want him to be aggressive. That’s why he was in the game, an opportunity to steal a base there.”