Did Framber Valdez Intentionally Hit His Own Catcher? ...Middle East

Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything like this, and despite the protests after the game, I’m thinking this is going to be an issue for Astros lefty Framber Valdez heading into free agency after this season.

All we can say is how it looked, and it looked REALLY bad:

There’s speculation that Astros pitcher Framber Valdez purposely crossed up his catcher Cesar Salazar and hit him with this pitch after Salazar told him to step off before allowing a grand slam pic.twitter.com/ds3c9MzQV6

Here’s how it looked: Valdez and his catcher, Cesar Salazar, were not on the same page about a pitch call in a big moment. Salazar asked Valdez to step off, but Valdez threw a pitch and got wrecked for a grand slam. Then, Valdez throws a fastball while Salazar is clearly expecting something breaking or offspeed. He gets hit. Hard. Dangerous. Valdez reacts by … turning his back in anger? What?

So, yeah. That certainly looked extremely intentional, especially when you consider how rare a cross-up is – double especially in the pitchcom era – and when you look at the reactions. A number of pitchers suggested they thought what Valdez did may have been intentional, so it’s not as if we’re just missing something as outsiders.

After the game, each of Framber Valdez and Cesar Salazar said it was just a miscommunication or whatever:

Framber Valdez on the grand slam, when Cesar Salazar tried to get him to step off and not throw the pitch:“It was a pitch I wanted to throw. I called for that pitch. I wasn’t able to locate it. Then afterwards, we just got crossed up. Afterwards, I told him I was sorry.”…

Cesar Salazar on the grand slam pitch“I pressed the wrong button. Yea, that’s what it was.”“I wanted him to step off because we were going through some pitches.”Q: Was the cross up intentional?“No. We have a really good relationship.”“There was a good amount of Yankees…

Much more here at The Athletic on the situation and the conversations after the game. I doubt this is the last we hear about it, though, with Valdez one of the top free agents on the market after this season.

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