Writing Sports, 10 abr. (EFE) .- Dominican lefty Framber Valdez demonstrated his ace status from the mound and this Monday he dominated the Pittsburgh Pirates’ bats to give the Houston Astros a 2-8 victory.
Outfielders Kyle Tucker, with three RBIs and Cuban Yordan Álvarez, with two RBIs, were the main support of the defending Major League Baseball champions’ offense.
Valdez (1-1) pitched through seven innings, allowing three hits, walking five and striking out five batters.
The Astros’ starting rotation leader grounded 11 batters, proving his efficiency in keeping the ball out of the infield.
Valdez faced his compatriot Roansy Contreras (1-1), who started for the Pirates and could not stop the Astros’ offense, who in 3.1 innings attacked him with nine hits and seven runs, in addition to adding three strikeouts, to take their first loss of the season.
The Astros’ attack began in the same first inning with Tucker’s single, who brought Alex Bregman to the plate with the first round of the game, in a sequence in which Álvarez was thrown out at third base.
The Honduran Mauricio Dubón drove in the Dominican Jeremy Peña with the second round of the game in the second episode.
The Astros continued to attack in that second inning, when Álvarez hit a hit to left field, which allowed Dubón and Puerto Rican Martín Maldonado to reach the register to make it 0-4 in favor of the Houston team.
The Pirates responded at the end of that second act with a solo home run by Ji Man Choi, to put the first run for the locals on the scoreboard.
Maldonado once again extended the lead to four runs (1-5) with an indisputable producer of a lap in the third.
Tucker returned to the attack in the fourth and with an infield single he drove in Bregman and Álvarez to add two more scores for those led by Dusty Baker.
Dominican Rodolfo Castro led the second run to the register, with a single to drive in his compatriot Carlos Santana.
Bregman drove in the eighth for the Astros in the seventh inning.
For the Astros, Álvarez finished with three hits, two RBIs and one run scored, Dubón and Maldonado with runs scored and RBIs and Peña with a run.
For the Pirates, Castro drove in a run and Santana scored a run.
