MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS VS BRAVES

October 26, 2021

Framber Valdez

Minute Maid Park

Houston Astros

Postgame 1 Press Conference

Atlanta - 6, Houston - 2

Q. What happened on the pitch to Soler?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: Yeah, Soler attacked me in that situation because I got behind in the count. And that's what good hitters do, is they take advantage of that kind of situation to attack a pitcher.

Q. Just the first game, how quickly they turned the page.

FRAMBER VALDEZ: Yeah, that page has already been turned for us. We've moved past it. Tonight's over. Tomorrow we're going to come in here and try to win it and do everything we can to get our first win in the World Series.

Q. Framber, you talked a lot yesterday about reining in your emotions and not getting too excited. Was it tough to rein in those emotions after Soler hit that home run on the third pitch of the game?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: Yeah, it was my first World Series game, so I'm not going to tell you that I didn't feel the pressure, I didn't feel any kind of tension. But I did everything I could to lower that, lower the adrenaline, lower the emotion I was feeling. I was able to get out of the inning by just giving out a couple runs and came back out for the second and out for the third and tried to attack guys.

It's done with now. I'll just have to come back in the next outing and do everything I can and work to be better next time.

Q. Framber, what was the biggest difference in your stuff tonight than the stuff you had in Boston?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: Like I said before, I think just being behind in the count so much is what hurt me more than anything in this game. It doesn't matter what the quality of the batter is, if you get behind in counts, you're going to run into situations where they do damage against you. I got in a lot of counts with two balls, three balls, and those were the situations where they did damage against me.

It was more than anything, just falling behind in the count. I'll just have to continue to attack the strike zone next time.

Q. With the adjustments you need to make for the next outing, are you focused more on the good things that happened in Boston or the bad things that happened tonight?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: For me, I think I'm just going to focus on this outing tonight. We're going to look at the errors I made and think about how I can clean those things up, but also look at the things I did well on this outing tonight and just kind of analyze what was going on, what was my intention, how come I lost focus a little bit there in the first inning, and what I can do to correct those things before the next outing.

Q. When you are feeling a little nerves and tension, as you mentioned, what do you do to try to overcome that, and how much did that maybe impact the game tonight?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: I wouldn't say it was nerves too much as much as it was just the emotion of the situation, being the starter for Game 1 of the World Series, being the starter for the Astros in the World Series, I think it was that more than anything else. It was maybe trying to do a bit too much, throwing a bit too hard. I was in the zone but not exactly where I wanted to be, not where the catcher wanted it either.

So it's a matter of restarting and being sure that I'm ready to attack the zone and get ahead of hitters for my next outing.

Q. This Braves offense is not generally a big ground ball team, and they did a pretty decent job of lifting the ball tonight against you. Is there anything that you saw there that you'll take forward in terms of adjustments for your next outing?

FRAMBER VALDEZ: I think the biggest reason for that is probably because I left the ball up a lot in the zone tonight, so they were able to get a lot of fly balls, a lot of line drives. In those kinds of situations, you can hit home runs as well when you leave the ball up.

That's not the kind of pitcher I am. I like to leave them down in the zone. I think that's one of the major adjustments I'm thinking of making is being down in the zone now. I think, if I do that, I'll be able to get my ground balls, get my outs, get my strikeouts, but it's just a matter of not leaving the ball up in the zone as much.