Framber outduels Ohtani and pitches Astros to 6-2 victory over Angels

On Friday night, we enjoyed a pitching duel for the ages between Framber Valdez and Shohei Ohtani. The Astros’ starting pitcher delivered a masterful performance to give the Astros a 6-2 win against the Angels to got their second victory in the four-game series.

Framber absolutely outpitched Ohtani and kept his brilliant hot streak. After allowing only eight hits and one run over his last 15 innings, the southpaw threw seven scoreless tonight, surrendering five hits, walking one, and punching out seven.

Valdez needed only 92 pitches (61 strikes) and induced 13 swings-and-misses with his whole arsenal. Even though he relied primarily on his sinker, he also used his curveball and his cutter to dominate the Halos for the second time this season — on May 9, he won, struck out 12, and allowed one run in eight innings.

The lefty’s record is now at 6-4, with a 2.16 ERA.

On the other side, Ohtani took the loss (5-2) and was smacked hard with five runs and nine hits over six innings of work.

Offensively, the Astros didn’t waste any time to set the tone. In the first inning, Yordan Álvarez launched his 15th homer of the season, a 408-foot rocket over the right-field fence. With the two-run shot, Yordan (50) became the MLB leader in RBI’s, surpassing countryman Adolis García (49).

The score remained still until the fifth, when Alex Bregman made it 3-0 with an RBI single. In the next inning, Corey Julks found a man on base and punished Ohtani with a two-run home run of his own for his fourth long ball of the campaign. It was 5-0 Astros!

With Phil Maton on the mound for the eighth, the Angels scored their two runs but failed to do more damage against righty Bryan Abreu, who retired the ninth to seal the win.

On Saturday (3:10 pm CT), the Astros will try to secure the series with Cristian Javier on the bump, facing Patrick Sandoval. They’ll go after their 35th win.

VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.