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[theusanewsday]

Astros Pitcher Faces the Minimum in No-Hitter Against Cleveland

Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros threw the second solo no-hitter of the season on Tuesday, shutting down the Cleveland Guardians in a 2-0 win Tuesday night.

Astros Pitcher Faces the Minimum in No-Hitter Against Cleveland Valdez needed only 93 pitches to carve through the Cleveland lineup, striking out seven. He faced the minimum 27 batters because the Astros turned a double play after the lone baserunner he allowed, a walk to Oscar Gonzalez to lead off the top of the fifth inning. According to Baseball Reference, it was only the 34th time in Major League Baseball’s modern era in which a pitcher faced the minimum number of hitters in a nine-inning no-hitter. In a Houston franchise with a storied pitching history — Nolan Ryan, J.R. Richard, Gerrit Cole and the Cy Young Award winners Mike Scott, Roger Clemens and Justin Verlander — Valdez threw the 16th Astros no-hitter. He stands alone, however, as the only left-hander within that group. He completed the performance by inducing a soft lineout from Guardians catcher Cam Gallagher to shortstop Jeremy Peña. Valdez’s no-hitter came just hours after the passage of M.L.B.’s trading deadline, with several teams, including his Astros, making moves to better position themselves for the stretch run. Houston on Tuesday reacquired Verlander, who had signed with the Mets in the off-season. Last week, Houston traded with the Chicago White Sox to land the right-handed reliever Kendall Graveman, who helped the team reach the 2021 World Series. The Astros have become regulars in the American League Championship Series and are hoping to make a third consecutive World Series appearance, but first they have to chase down the Texas Rangers in the A.L. West. Houston trails by only a half game, but Texas bolstered its roster ahead of the deadline, too, making a deal with the Mets for the right-handed starter Max Scherzer and shoring up its catching depth by adding Austin Hedges. Read the full article

[theusanewsday]

Co-Host New Zealand Is Out; Colombia Stuns Germany

New Zealand had the high of a win in their opening game, but were eliminated on Sunday with a draw against Switzerland.Credit...Lars Baron/Getty Images Co-Host New Zealand Is Out; Colombia Stuns Germany The story of New Zealand’s journey in the Women’s World Cup, and of its exit on Sunday night, will be a familiar one to the team and its fans: not enough goals for New Zealand, and too many for everyone else. For New Zealand, a co-host of the tournament with Australia, the ride had begun on a high. The team had earned its first-ever World Cup victory in the event’s opening match, leading a rugby-mad country to stir, if only momentarily, for women’s soccer. For a few days, even bigger achievements seemed possible. But the opening victory had been narrow — the Football Ferns, as the team is known, had scored a single goal — and perhaps that was a sign. New Zealand never scores much, and it never scored again at the World Cup, eliminated quietly on Sunday in Dunedin after a 0-0 tie with Switzerland that was the home team’s ninth goalless outing in 12 games this year. “Obviously we talked and we were proud of ourselves and what we’ve been able to accomplish, but at the end of the day we wanted to get out of this group stage and we just didn’t,” New Zealand midfielder Malia Steinmetz said. “It’s just black and white.” In Auckland, meanwhile, Norway was raining goals on the Philippines, winning by 6-0 to save what had looked to be a star-crossed campaign. When the whistles blew to end both games, the math was unforgiving for the host nation: Switzerland and Norway were moving on, and New Zealand was out. With that elimination, New Zealand became the first host ever eliminated in the group stage, a fate that Australia will try not to match in its own must-win game against Canada on Monday. Not even company will ease the sting for the Ferns, though. Norway, on the other hand, will feel resurrected after a chilly night in Auckland. It had not particularly enjoyed the view from last place over the past week, not when it lost to New Zealand in its opener, not when its star Caroline Graham Hansen publicly challenged her coach to restore her to the lineup and then apologized for her outburst, not when the striker Ada Hegerberg sat out again with an injury. Norway got on a roll.Credit...Abbie Parr/Associated Press Faced with the humiliation of going out at the hands of the Philippines, though, something stirred in the Norwegians. Forward Sophie Roman Haug scored on a one-time volley after only six minutes, then doubled her total with a header after only 17. Graham Hansen made it 3-0 before the half, then sent in the cross that was turned in for a Philippines own goal three minutes after halftime. That silenced a profoundly pro-Philippines crowd of more than 34,000, and allowed Norway to set aside a week of grumbling and whispers of locker room discontent. “We felt it was us against the world today and we performed from the very start, delivering when we really had to,” Norway Coach Hege Riise said. “This was the best response we could have given the Norwegian people and ourselves.” Guro Reiten’s penalty made it five and then Roman Haug added her third, and Norway’s sixth, in injury time and that was that. But by then everyone knew it was over anyway, and the only outcome that mattered was the one in Dunedin, where New Zealand pressed and pressed for the goal that never came, the chance to change a scoreline the Ferns knew absolutely wouldn’t suffice. When it didn’t arrive, when the whistle blew for full time, the players’ stunned faces told the story of a tournament that started brightly and, for them, is now over far too soon. Read the full article