Framber Valdez pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings while Alex Bregman and Jon Singleton slugged home runs as the Houston Astros claimed the opener of a three-game interleague series with a 5-0 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
Valdez (9-5) matched his season high of 10 strikeouts and allowed four hits and two walks. He ran his unbeaten streak to six starts and picked up his fourth victory in that stretch. The Astros have won all six of those games.
Valdez surrendered a leadoff double to Shohei Ohtani in the first inning but then hit a dominant groove. He retired 16 consecutive batters, eight on strikeouts, into the sixth inning.
Valdez fanned six consecutive batters in a stretch that was halted when Gavin Lux singled with one out in the sixth. Valdez walked Ohtani and Will Smith but recovered to strike out Teoscar Hernandez and get Andy Pages to line out to end the threat.
When the Dodgers’ Miguel Vargas and Enrique Hernandez stroked back-to-back singles leading off the seventh, Valdez fanned Cavan Biggio but needed some help to preserve the shutout.
Reliever Bryan Abreu came on to strike out Nick Ahmed for the second out, and the Astros got a break when Enrique Hernandez overran second base on an infield single by Lux. The tag on Hernandez was made before Vargas crossed home plate.
Valdez threw 96 pitches, 65 for strikes.
Joey Loperfido spotted Valdez a 1-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single off Dodgers right-hander Gavin Stone (9-4). Bregman doubled that advantage an inning later when he drilled a 2-1 fastball 390 feet to left field for his 13th home run this season.
Singleton one-upped Bregman with a 403-foot blast that carried into the upper deck in right in the fourth, his eighth home run of the season. The two-run shot extended the lead to 4-0.
Stone allowed four runs on nine hits and two walks with three strikeouts over six innings.
