With His Dazzling Curveball, Framber Whiffs the Yankees; My ALCS Game 2 Analysis
Framber Valdez has constantly gotten better throughout his career, pitching more innings while allowing fewer runs. His development paid off in an excellent start in the ALCS last night.
In 2019, he had a 5.86 ERA in 70.2 IP, with most of those coming out of the bullpen.
And then he got better. In the pandemic shortened 2020 season, he joined the rotation on a regular basis and had a 3.57 ERA in 11 starts.
And then he got better. In 2021, he stepped up to become the #2 starter for a team that desperately needed starting pitchers to step up, posting 3.14 ERA in 134 innings.
And then he got better. In 2022, he led the American League in innings pitched with 201.1 innings while posting a 2.82 ERA in 31 starts.
Framber Valdez keeps getting better, and we saw the fruits of that in his performance in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.
He Kept Them Off the Basepaths
Only 5 Yankees reached base against Valdez tonight—Donaldson on a double, Judge on a single, Torres on an infield single, Bader on a single, and of course, Stanton on the double error by Valdez himself.
But note what is not on that list—a walk. Framber has walked 9.6% of the batters he has faced in this career. The Yankees this season walked in 10.1% of their plate appearances. It was a recipe for a lot of walks. But none happened. Framber kept the ball in the strike zone.
And notice what else is not on that list—a home run. Valdez kept the Yankees, who led the majors in home runs this season, from leaving the yard. It is difficult to do, even for a sinker ball pitcher like Valdez.
He Struck Them Out
Valdez recorded 9 strikeouts in his seven innings on the mound last night. Framber struck out 23.5% of the batters he faced this season, just over the major league average of 22.4%. Last night, he struck out 34.6% of the batters that he faced.
You strike batters out by getting them to swing and miss, and Framber did that tonight. The Yankees swung and missed on nearly a quarter of the pitches that Valdez threw.
In particular, his curveball was effective. Very effective.
Martin Maldonado, the Astros catcher last night, had a pretty good view of Valdez’s curveball, and he gave it positive reviews. “It got better and better as the game went on, In the beginning, he was kind of babying because of the wind. But after that … he did a pretty good job of throwing that curveball.”
He Let Them Score
Framber’s double error in the fourth inning was, of course, pretty terrible. Framber induced a high chop the mound from Giancarlo Stanton. Valdez was trying to go to second to get Aaron Judge and start a double play, but then stumbled and fell down.
Valdez then doubled his problems by throwing the ball from the seat of his pants. It eluded Yuli Gurriel at first base, and allowed Judge to advance to third and Stanton to advance to second. Both scored on grounders by the next two hitters.
Valdez has poor defensive numbers; he’s been credited with -9 Defensive Runs Saved in his 513.1 innings in the field in his career.
The top of the fourth was a demonstration of the role batted ball luck can play in baseball. The Yankees did not hit a ball well, but succeeded with ground ball hits and avoiding strike outs at key moments. And of course, they were greatly aided by the defensive mistakes by Valdez.
Valdez then demonstrated one of the ways to avoid the vagaries of batted ball luck and defensive miscues. He struck out Josh Donaldson and Kyle Higashioka to end the inning.
He Kept Them Off the Scoreboard
Valdez gave up those two runs in the fourth. And that was it.
Framber’s combination of low walks, quality home run prevention, and a huge whiff rate produced the desired outcome—that Yankees could not score enough to win.
Overall, it was an outstanding game from Framber Valdez. For years, Valdez has kept improving as a pitcher, increasing the innings that he has pitched while lowering the number of runs he allows.
Through his work with a sports psychologist, Valdez has learned to calm himself so that he can focus on pitching. Undoubtedly, more experience as a major league pitcher has also seasoned his approach to preparation and execution.
In short, it took a lot of hard work for Framber to get better as a pitcher. It paid off on Thursday night in Game 2 of the ALCS.