The Houston Astros are going to skip ace Framber Valdez's next turn in the rotation -- originally scheduled for Sunday -- due to a right ankle injury, they told reporters Saturday (via Brian McTaggart).
For now, they are calling it right ankle soreness and the hope is he'll make one more start before the All-Star break, which begins once the action on Sunday, July 9, is concluded. Valdez injured the ankle June 20 against the Mets and the Astros say it affected his performance last time out against the Cardinals.
Valdez, a 29-year-old lefty, is 7-6 with an AL-best 2.49 ERA (170 ERA+), 1.05 WHIP and 110 strikeouts against 24 walks in 105 innings this season. He was an All-Star last year and finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting and surely he'll be making a second straight trip to the All-Star Game.
The Astros will be holding out hope here the next several days that Valdez's injury proves to be minor. After a very poor stretch of play, they finally look like they are starting to get things going. They've won four of their last five and six of nine to move to 45-37 and four games out of first place in the AL West. They have three games left in their series against the first-place Rangers, so the timing of Valdez needing to miss a start is especially bad.
Still, the most important thing here is getting Valdez right for the rest of the season and it sounds like this setback is only temporary.
