told the Houston Chronicle<\/a> on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe idea that he\u2019s intentionally trying to injure one of his teammates is preposterous. It\u2019s a complete lack of respect for who he is as a person and who he is as a player. And his body of work demonstrates that. Anything to the contrary is just completely misguided and it\u2019s not right.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Valdez, 31, who has spent his entire major league career with Houston and earned All-Star nods in 2022 and 2023, got into trouble when loading the bases in the Yankees\u2019 half of the fifth inning with the Astros down 2-0.\n <\/p>\n
\n When Valdez appeared to shake off Salazar\u2019s sign for a curveball on a 1-0 pitch to New York\u2019s Trent Grisham, the catcher waved at him to step off the mound. Instead, Valdez threw a sinker, which Grisham blasted for a grand slam.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Yankees\u2019 Anthony Volpe was the next batter. With a 1-0 count, a sinker hit Salazar\u2019s chest protector, catching him off guard because he was expecting a curveball. Valdez turned his back to the plate and paused as Salazar and Volpe stared at him.\n <\/p>\n
\n Valdez explained after the game through interpreter Otto Loor that \u201cwe got crossed up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen we got down to the dugout, I excused myself with (Salazar) and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cHe called for a curveball, but I was already in mind that I was going to throw a sinker so that\u2019s what I threw and that\u2019s what happened.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Valdez](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/gettyimages-2233483111.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Both Salazar and Valdez said they have a good relationship, with Valdez saying, \u201cI would never want to hurt somebody on purpose, but it\u2019s stuff that happened and we were able to talk through it. We\u2019re good.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Salazar, 29, said he pressed the wrong button on the PitchCom transmitter, and no one heard it as the home ballpark, with many Yankees fans celebrating, remained buzzing after Grisham\u2019s homer.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was a big spot for the Yankees,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cThe stadium was loud and I thought I pressed the button, but I pressed the wrong button and I was expecting another pitch, but that was it. I pressed the wrong button and, yeah, that\u2019s what it was.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Valdez\u2019s agent, Cabrera, said his client didn\u2019t expect observers to think he intentionally hit Salazar with the pitch.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn no way, shape or form does the starting pitcher intentionally try to hurt his teammate,\u201d Cabrera told the Chronicle. \u201cMix-ups happen all the time, just like a pitcher shaking (off a pitch) all the time. This is just not an issue.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut it does become an issue when people question Framber\u2019s quality as a teammate and his interest in defending his fellow players in the dugout on the field. He messed up. He admitted it. He got mixed up, done. But to suggest anything other than that is just wrong and it\u2019s not acceptable.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Valdez took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits \u2013 including two home runs \u2013 and one walk, with eight strikeouts over five innings.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link An unusual sequence between the battery of Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez and catcher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-118984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}