Houston pitcher Framber Valdez lost his no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning when Texas slugger Corey Seager hit a home run on Tuesday night.
Valdez walked two batters in the ninth, but there was only one runner on base when Seager homered. The 30-year-old left-hander had a perfect game through five innings.
The perfect game ended when Jonah Heim reached base in the sixth inning due to an error by third baseman Alex Bregman. Robbie Grossman then grounded into a double play before Ezequiel Duran was struck out.
Bregman’s error happened when he fielded a high chopper while running and threw low to first baseman Jon Singleton, who couldn’t scoop the ball.
Marcus Semien walked with two outs in the seventh inning, which was the first time Texas had a fourth batter in an inning, but Josh Jung struck out on three pitches. This was Valdez’s fifth strikeout of the game.
Valdez had thrown 107 pitches, with 67 strikes, through 8 2/3 innings and had handled the eighth inning with routine flyouts from Wyatt Langford, Adolis García, and Heim.
It’s been a little over a year since Valdez threw the 16th no-hitter in Houston’s history in a 2-0 win over Cleveland on August 1, 2023. Ronel Blanco added the 17th no-hitter against Toronto on April 1.
Texas slugger Corey Seager had one of the hardest-hit outs, flying out to left fielder Yordan Alvarez at the warning track for the second out of the fourth inning.
Valdez came into the game with a 5-0 record in his last seven starts, all wins for Houston. He was scratched from another scheduled start against Texas this season after losing to the World Series champions twice in the AL Championship Series last fall.
