HOUSTON — Framber Valdez leads the American League in innings pitched, and has delivered a quality start in a team-record 21 consecutive outings.
Imagine how jealous Dylan Bundy must be.
Valdez suffocated the Twins' offense yet again on Wednesday, limiting Minnesota to a single that traveled 40 feet and a no-out double in which the runner never advanced another base. The Twins fell feebly for the fifth straight game, 5-3 at Minute Maid Park, and fell a season-high four games out of first place in the AL Central.
Bundy's first pitch of the game traveled 400 feet over the left-field seats, Jose Altuve's 21st home run of the season, but the veteran righthander continued his strong — if mostly brief — string of August starts by allowing only two more hits and one more run in his five innings. Bundy, who has never beaten Houston in 10 career appearances, owns a 2.33 ERA this month and has allowed only 12 hits in his four starts — but has yet to throw a pitch in the sixth inning in any of them.
He was pulled after throwing 66 pitches this time, and watched as reliever Mike Fulmer gave up two doubles and a two-run homer to Trey Mancini, cementing the Astros' latest mostly non-competitive victory over the Twins. Houston has swept all five games this season by a combined score of 30-8, but the Twins are making it easy for them this week, their offense all but non-existent as they fight through a rash of injuries.
Minnesota has been outscored 23-11 in the past week, six games (and five losses) to both Texas-based teams. The Twins have lost 10 of their past 12 road games, too, and here in Houston have stayed scrupulously neutral in the Astros' intra-squad competition for the AL Cy Young Award. After failing to record a single hit in Justin Verlander's six innings — they were saved from further embarrassment by the two-time Cy winner's 90-pitch limit — they managed just two in seven innings against Valdez, who improved to 13-4 with his 106-pitch effort.
For the second straight night, the Twins tacked on some ninth-inning runs against the back of Houston's bullpen, this time righthander Rafael Montero, to make the fans who stayed to the end nervous. Gio Urshela lifted a bloop single into shallow right field, a single that put him in position to score when fill-in left fielder Mauricio Dubon allowed Luis Arraez's liner down the line to get past him and roll to the wall.
A walk to Nick Gordon and Jose Altuve's error on a double-play ball brought Arraez home, too, but Max Kepler lined into a double play and pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez grounded out to finish it off.
The Twins, forced to use career infielder Tim Beckham as an outfielder in the face of injuries to Byron Buxton, Alex Kirilloff and other outfielders, are suffering through a prolonged slump — they are batting just .156 as a team over the past six games, and they haven't homered in five consecutive games, all losses, their longest single-season stretch without a home run since Sept. 2014.
