Framber Valdez bounces back to help Astros blank Rockies

Framber Valdez produced his fifth scoreless start of the season, and rookie Cam Smith homered for the first time in nearly two months as the Houston Astros squared this three-game interleague series against the visiting Colorado Rockies with a 4-0 victory on Wednesday.

Valdez (12-7) reversed course from what had been a challenging month of results. He was 0-3 with a 7.33 ERA across four August starts before twirling seven innings against the Rockies.

Valdez retired the side in order in the top of the first inning, worked around a two-out walk to Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar in the second, and didn't allow his first hit until Brenton Doyle opened the fourth with a single to right field. Valdez responded with strikeouts of Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck, and induced three groundball outs in the fifth to sidestep a two-out single from Kyle Farmer.

When Tyler Freeman opened the sixth with a single, Valdez followed by getting Doyle to roll into a double play. Valdez stranded Beck, who walked leading off the seventh, at third by getting Kyle Karros to fly out to left.

Valdez surrendered three hits, all singles, issued two walks and had five strikeouts. He recorded nine groundball outs during his 99-pitch effort and snapped a string of three consecutive losses.

Rockies rookie right-hander Chase Dollander (2-11) allowed a two-out RBI single to Jesus Sanchez that scored Yordan Alvarez in the bottom of the first, but stifled the Astros for the remainder of his six-inning appearance.

Dollander stranded Mauricio Dubon at second in the second and faced the minimum in the third and fourth innings. He induced Jeremy Pena to roll into an inning-ending double play in the fifth and struck out Christian Walker to end the sixth. Dollander matched his career high of 98 pitches and allowed one run on three hits and four walks with seven strikeouts.

Smith belted a leadoff homer to left in the seventh off Rockies reliever Nick Anderson, doubling the lead to 2-0 with his first homer since June 28. Alvarez cranked a 421-foot, two-run homer to straightaway center field off Angel Chivilli in the eighth for his first homer since April 27.

Astros bench coach Omar Lopez filled in for Astros manager Joe Espada, who left the ballpark after feeling ill during batting practice.

--Field Level Media