For much of his start on Saturday, Framber Valdez was cruising. The first five innings were relatively stress-free for the left-hander, minus the occasional base runner. His defense didn’t do Valdez many favors, but he still found a way out of trouble by inducing a groundout or picking up a strikeout when needed. Alas, sometimes all it takes to derail a strong start is only one play or two. Cue this disastrous sixth-inning play at first base.
At first glance, it was clear that Singleton lacked the necessary urgency. Instead of charging the ball, the first baseman let the ball come to him. That was the first mistake. With Valdez also not exerting his full effort into covering first base, that decision proved costly as Singleton didn’t have anyone to flip the ball to. It was a calamity of errors and a continuation of some sloppy defensive play from this infield in recent games. Ultimately, their inability to get that third out led to Valdez’s departure, and Tayler Scott’s first pitch of the game led to Jackson Holliday clearing the bases with a double to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead.
The Astros’ lineup other than solo home runs from Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña did little to alleviate any defensive miscues or pitching implosions. Honestly, without Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, well, I’m not terribly surprised by that development. The depth simply isn’t there to compensate for every game as long as those two remain out of the lineup. On the plus side, the recently acquired Ben Gamel picked up two hits.
For the bullpen, Scott’s first pitch splitter to Holliday proved detrimental, although he didn’t create the mess in the first place. Caleb Ferguson has quietly put together seven consecutive scoreless appearances, throwing a scoreless 1 1⁄3 inning.
Unfortunately, with the lineup unable to crack Baltimore’s bullpen once again, there wasn’t much to be excited about in this one. For a game that started off promising, it was a disappointing development. Thankfully, the Mariners also lost, so the Astros maintain a 4 1⁄2 game lead over their division rival in the AL West. But losing back-to-back games in this manner is certainly a gut punch.