ARLINGTON, Texas — Astros pitcher Framber Valdez lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning when Rangers slugger Corey Seager hit a two-run homer in Houston’s 4-2 victory at Texas on Tuesday night.
Valdez was on the verge of his second no-hitter in just more than a year when Seager sent the first pitch he saw in the ninth, an 85 mph slider, into the stands in right field. It was Seager’s fifth homer in five games.
The 30-year-old left-hander cruised through eight innings but finally began to stumble in the ninth against his Texas rival and the defending World Series champions.
Robbie Grossman drew a leadoff walk on Valdez’s 99th pitch, but the 100th was the second Texas double play of the game on Ezequiel Duran‘s bouncer to Alex Bregman at third.
Josh Smith kept the Rangers alive with another walk, setting up Seager’s 24th homer on the 107th pitch from Valdez. Seager has now broken up two no-hitters with two outs in the ninth; on Aug. 25, 2016, he hit a single for the Dodgers on his bobblehead night against San Francisco‘s Matt Moore to end his no-hit bid.
Valdez was immediately replaced by closer Josh Hader, who walked Marcus Semien before Josh Jung flied out to the base of the wall in right field. It was Hader’s 23rd consecutive save, one shy of Brad Lidge’s franchise record from 2005.
“I try to always go out there trying to have fun,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “Obviously, sometimes I have got to get serious. Went out there and do what I try to do every single time, try and throw strikes on all my pitches and just try to help help the team win.”
Yordan Alvarez hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning that ended up being the difference. Jake Meyers drove in the first two Houston runs with a pair of RBI singles.
Valdez, whose other no-hitter was a 2-0 victory against Cleveland on Aug. 1, 2023, had a perfect game through five innings, but still faced the minimum of 18 batters through six.
The perfect game ended when Jonah Heim opened the sixth by reaching on third baseman Bregman’s throwing error. Grossman then grounded into a double play before Duran was called out on strikes.
Bregman’s error came when he fielded a high chopper on the run and threw low to first baseman Jon Singleton, who couldn’t make the scoop about a half step ahead of Heim.
Semien walked with two outs in the seventh to finally get a fourth batter to the plate in an inning for Texas, but Jung struck out on three pitches.
Valdez cruised through the eighth with routine flyouts from Wyatt Langford, Adolis Garcia and Heim.
He topped out at 96.9 mph on his fastball, but created plenty of soft contact with plenty of off-speed pitches.
Seager had one of the other hardest-hit outs, flying out to left fielder Alvarez on the warning track for the second out of the fourth inning.
Valdez entered the game 5-0 in his previous seven starts, all Houston victories. He was scratched from his other scheduled start against Texas this season after losing to the Rangers twice in the AL Championship Series last fall.
Valdez is the fourth pitcher in the last five seasons to come up one out short of a no-hitter, and the first individual pitcher to lose a no-hitter by giving up a homer with two outs in the ninth since Roy Halladay on Sept 27, 1998, in what was his second career MLB start.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.