After rookie Brice Matthews’ coming-out party Monday, Houston will turn to veteran ace left-hander Framber Valdez in an attempt to win the series from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
Valdez will bring a nine-game winning streak — and a surprising All-Star Game snub — into the second game of a three-game set in Phoenix. The Astros have not won a series since sweeping the Dodgers in Los Angeles from July 4-6.
Matthews, playing in his fifth major league game, had two homers off Zac Gallen and drove in five in the Astros’ 6-3 victory Monday, which stopped the Diamondbacks’ four-game winning streak and stalled their return to wild-card relevance.
“You’re starting to see him believe in himself,” Astros manager Joe Espada said, “getting the pitches he knows he can handle and then putting the barrel on the ball. He’s strong. Control the at-bat. Let the pitchers come to you.”
Matthews, the Astros’ first-round draft pick in 2023 out of the University of Nebraska, had been 1-for-12 after being recalled from Triple A Sugar Land on July 11 to replenish an injury-depleted roster. The Astros have 16 players on the injured list.
“I kind of felt like I was just galloping around the bases,” Matthews said of his three-run homer with two outs in the second. “I didn’t know really what to do. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully I can do it a little bit more.”
Valdez (10-4, 2.75 ERA) is to face Arizona fellow left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (3-6, 5.94).
The Astros had lost seven of nine, but with their second win in a row, improved their American League West lead to five games over the Seattle Mariners, who lost Monday.
Eugenio Suarez hit a bases-empty homer, his fifth homer in three games, but Arizona fell a game under .500 and dropped 5 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres for the third and final NL wild-card spot.
“He’s playing like Nintendo,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of Suarez, who leads the NL with 36 homers. “It’s unbelievable. We’re playing good baseball. We’re going to be fine.”
Valdez has not lost since May 2, a 7-3 defeat at the Chicago White Sox in one of four starts this season in which he has given up more than three runs.
He struck out 10 and allowed an unearned run in six innings his last time out, a no-decision in a 5-4 victory over Texas on July 12 that included a scary moment in the sixth inning.
Valdez was struck in the right calf by a 103.8 mph one-hopper from Corey Seager to open the inning, but he stayed in to finish the inning before being replaced in the seventh after throwing 94 pitches.
Rodriguez appeared to have turned the corner in June, when he was 2-1 with a 1.98 ERA — just when the Diamondbacks needed him most to help take up the slack in the rotation left by the absence of Corbin Burnes.
He has been hit hard in his two starts this month, giving up , when he gave up 20 hits and 13 runs (12 earned) in 8 1/3 innings in losses to the Kansas City Royals and San Diego. He gave up five homers in the two games as his WHIP climbed to 1.67, second in the majors for pitchers with at least 10 starts.
Rodriguez has had little success against the Astros, going 1-7 with 7.51 ERA in 11 starts against them. Jose Altuve is 9-for-24 with two homers against him.
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