{"id":116077,"date":"2025-09-03T06:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116077\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T06:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:29:09","slug":"astros-starter-valdez-says-he-did-not-intentionally-hit-catcher-salazar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/116077\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros starter Valdez says he did not intentionally hit catcher Salazar"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2014 Houston Astros<\/a> starter Framber Valdez<\/a> said he apologized to catcher C\u00e9sar Salazar<\/a> after hitting him in the chest with a pitch Tuesday night, but he insisted that he didn\u2019t hit his teammate on purpose.<\/p>\n

Valdez gave up a grand slam to Trent Grisham in the fifth inning of the 7-1 loss to the New York Yankees. On the next pitch, Valdez hit Salazar in the chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened with us, we just got crossed up,” Valdez said in Spanish through a translator. “I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. We went down to the dugout and I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez was then asked directly if he did it on purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was not intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez and Salazar were talking when reporters entered the clubhouse after the game and Valdez said they had sorted things out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to talk through it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe spoke after the game\u2026 at his locker and everything\u2019s good between us. It\u2019s just stuff that happens in baseball. But yeah, we talked through it and we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar was asked about what happened on the pitch where he was hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stadium was loud,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought I pressed the button, but I pressed the wrong button. I was expecting another pitch, but it wasn\u2019t it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar said Valdez didn’t hit him on purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, me and Framber we actually have a really good relationship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Houston Astros starter Framber Valdez said he apologized to catcher C\u00e9sar Salazar after hitting him in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-116077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}