Framber Valdez recorded a season-high 12 strikeouts while leading the Houston Astros to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
Isaac Paredes slugged his club-leading 15th home run and Jose Altuve added a two-run double as the Astros claimed the decisive game of the three-game series. Houston earned a split of the six-game season series with the White Sox.
While his streak of consecutive quality starts was snapped at six, Valdez (7-4) nevertheless won his fifth consecutive start. He fired five innings of two-run ball, permitting seven hits and a walk.
Chicago’s Miguel Vargas finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple, a walk and two runs. Edgar Quero had three hits, including RBI singles in the third and fifth innings.
The Astros erased a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the third when four consecutive batters reached with one out. Paredes followed a Jeremy Pena single with a walk, and both of them scored when Altuve roped a double into the left field corner. Yainer Diaz added a double that plated Altuve for a 3-1 lead.
Quero’s second RBI hit pulled the White Sox within 3-2 in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the frame, Paredes socked a 1-1 fastball from White Sox starter Davis Martin (2-7) for 400-foot solo homer to left-center field.
Paredes finished 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs. He departed in the seventh inning after limping through the first base bag while rolling into a double play.
Martin allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts over six innings.
Valdez stranded the bases loaded in the first by recording a called third strike against Tim Elko, his third strikeout of that frame.
He fanned the first two batters of the second inning, the final two batters of the third, and struck out a pair of batters in both the fourth and fifth.
Mike Tauchman smacked a leadoff homer off Astros closer Josh Hader in the ninth, but Hader recovered to record his 18th save despite allowing a two-out double to Vargas.
–Field Level Media
