Houston's two starters were solid in Thursday's Grapefruit League win over the Cardinals....
JUPITER, Fla. — If there is a competition to start on opening day, consider Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier deadlocked.
“They were sharp. They were very sharp,” manager Dusty Baker said after Houston’s 6-0 win. “That was very impressive.” Three of Valdez’s six outs arrived on the ground, including a groundball double play to erase Arenado’s leadoff single in the second. Javier got weak fly ball contact while wielding his trademark four-seam fastball — the invisiball — to finish all three of his strikeouts. Both of Valdez’s strikeouts arrived on his wicked curveball.
Baker worried about how both pitchers would navigate the new pitch clock, especially after Hunter Brown’s struggles on Wednesday afternoon. Valdez committed the only violation at the start of the second inning when he threw an extra warmup pitch after the clock had reached 30 seconds. Valdez started down 1-0 in the count against Arenado as a result.
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