LOS ANGELES -- Astros manager Joe Espada visited the Dodger Stadium mound with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday. His starter, Framber Valdez, had just walked Miguel Rojas with Shohei Ohtani due up, representing the go-ahead run for the Dodgers. Valdez, who had already given up four runs on the day, was at 101 pitches.
But Espada stuck with his guy.
“My best against their best,” Espada said. “My left-handed ace against probably the best left-handed hitter in the game. That’s the game, and I’m gonna let my horse get after it.”
The decision paid off, as Valdez drew a ground ball from Ohtani on a first-pitch sinker that rolled right into the glove of Jose Altuve, who tossed the inning-ending forceout to Zack Short at second base.
Despite the Dodgers capitalizing on his early mistakes, Valdez finished his outing with just those four earned runs on seven hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over six innings pitched -- and most importantly, the lead.
“I felt good,” Valdez said in Spanish. “I trusted in my pitches -- my sinker, my fastball, my changeup and my curveball. Even though my curve wasn’t quite there, I still have faith in it.
“I gave it my all. … It gave me confidence to get the out in that situation.”
Espada ended up making another key decision in the Astros’ 6-4 win over the Dodgers. With two outs and Dodgers runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth -- and Ohtani on deck -- Espada turned to his closer Josh Hader, asking him to pull off a four-out save.
“I thought that was the big moment of the game,” Espada said.
Hader’s focus was trying to get as quick an out as possible in the eighth, knowing he would need to stay fresh for the ninth. He attacked the zone with his slider, drawing three whiffs from Esteury Ruiz for a five-pitch strikeout to get out of the jam.
Once the bottom of the ninth was underway, Hader got off to a shaky start by allowing a leadoff single to Ohtani. But if you ask Hader, that was the second-best outcome that could have come from that at-bat.
“Facing a guy like Ohtani, you’re just trying to limit the damage,” Hader said. “Obviously if you can get the first out, that’s huge. … We had a two-run lead at that point, guy on first base, just try to get the next out.”
And that’s exactly what Hader did. He mowed through the next three batters in order, drawing a flyout from Mookie Betts, striking out Will Smith and getting Freddie Freeman to pop out -- all on his sinker -- to get the save and secure yet another series victory for Houston. They haven’t lost a series since May 21, nor back-to-back games since June 8-10.
“Everybody here is showing up with the same purpose, the same goal,” Altuve said of the team’s hot streak. “We’re playing good as a team. Obviously, there’s some guys individually having a great season, but the rest, we’re just battling, trying to bring something to the table. Winning is our goal, and in the end, that’s all that matters.”
Valdez is one such player having a great season individually, and it’s translated into team success. The Astros have won each of Valdez’s last 11 starts, and he’s 9-0 with a 2.07 ERA in that stretch.
He’s relied on a combination of his sinker and curveball to keep hitters off balance, but with the Dodgers keying in on his curveball on Saturday, Valdez turned to some of his more secondary pitches -- finding the most success with his changeup. With its velocity up by almost a full mile per hour, Valdez threw the changeup 22 times, recording a called-strike-plus-whiff rate of 32 percent on it.
“Since my curveball wasn’t really there from the beginning, it just wasn’t as nasty as I wanted it to be; I had to use my other pitches like the changeup, the sinker and fastball sometimes,” Valdez said. “I just attacked with my changeup, and I got results.”
The Astros needed every part of Valdez’s arsenal to get through after the Dodgers got a quick two runs on the board. And they responded with a four-spot in the top of the third, taking the lead and providing enough support for Valdez to finish his outing.
“We knew it was going to be a tough lineup,” Valdez said. “But we understand that we have the tools, the pitchers, the players and the defense to compete with any team.”