Astros' Framber Valdez Apologizes to Catcher After Drilling Him With Pitch

Pitcher says it was only a miscommunication and not intentional.

Framber Valdez and Cesar Salazar had a mid-game mixup. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

The Houston Astros' battery of Framber Valdez and César Salazar were not on the same page during Tuesday night's 7-1 loss to the New York Yankees, leading to a strange moment. In the top of the fifth inning and facing a bases-loaded situation, Salazar tried at the last moment to get his lefthanded pitcher to step off the rubber instead of delivering a pitch but his desperate motioning was ignored as Valdez continued his delivery. The offering resulted in a Trent Grisham grand slam that ultimately put the game out of reach.

The next Yankees hitter up was Anthony Volpe and Valdez delivered a straight pitch when his catcher was expecting something with some bend in it, which caused a dangerous situation.

Now, cross-ups are fairly common in baseball. Considering the circumstances, though, people were left to wonder if something unusual was happening.

There’s speculation that Astros pitcher Framber Valdez purposely crossed up his catcher Cesar Salazar and hit him with this pitch after Salazar told him to step off before allowing a grand slam pic.twitter.com/ds3c9MzQV6

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) September 3, 2025

Valdez made it clear that this miscommunication was not intentional.

"What happened with us, we just got crossed up," Valdez said in Spanish through an interpreter after the game. "I called for that pitch, I threw it and we got crossed up. We went down to the dugout and I excused myself with him and I said sorry to him and I take full responsibility for that."

"We were able to talk through it," he added. "We spoke after the game ... at his locker and everything's good between us. It's just stuff that happens in baseball. But yeah, we talked through it and we're good."

Salazar said after the game that crowd noise led to the mix-up:

More #Astros Post game with César Salazar about the Valdez situation.
"I pitched the wrong button on pitch com."
Salazar added: "We have a really good relationship" when asked if the cross up was intentional. pic.twitter.com/VFf5vgzKWh

— Randy McIlvoy (@KPRC2RandyMc) September 3, 2025

All's well that ends well and it's a good thing Salazar wasn't injured. The Astros seem bound for the playoffs and it will be important everyone's on the same page going forward.

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