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Houston Astros pitcher Framber Valdez hurled his way to a win as part of the American League (AL) All-Stars’ 3-2 victory over the National League (NL) All-Stars in the 2022 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Tuesday, per a report on the Astros’ website.
The report said that Valdez, who was among a quintet of Astros selected to the Midsummer Classic, crafted a scoreless inning by forcing the NL’s Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Freddie Freeman into groundouts. The southpaw was a first-time All-Star selection.
Skipper Dusty Baker, who earned the right to manage the AL All-Stars by virtue of the Astros winning the pennant last year, secured his first managerial All-Star Game victory, according to the team’s Twitter account.
“Congrats, Dusty!” the Astros tweeted.
The victory doesn’t count toward the 73-year-old Baker’s overall career wins, which are a little over 2,000 as of Sunday.
He was a member of the Dodgers’ 1981 World Series championship squad.
According to an Associated Press (AP) report that was ran by Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, Giancarlo Stanton, who hails from the suburban L.A. city of Panorama City, put the AL on the board in the fourth inning with a two-shot home run (HR).
The blast by the eventual game Most Valuable Player (MVP) was then followed by a go-ahead missile from Byron Buxton, the AP reported.
The Astros’ website reported that outfielder Kyle Tucker was the only other member of the Houston contingent to see time in the midseason exhibition contest, which the AL won for the ninth consecutive time.
Tucker, who leads the Astros in runs batted in (RBI) and stolen bases, went hitless in two appearances at the plate.
Injuries kept second baseman Jose Altuve and designated hitter (DH) Yordan Alvarez from participating while pitcher Justin Verlander was deemed inactive following a 106-pitch outing against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday, per the Astros.