Framber Valdez has no-hitter through 7 innings for Astros against rival Rangers

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Framber Valdez has no-hitter through 7 innings for Astros against rival Rangers

2024-08-07 09:57 Last Updated At：10:01

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Houston pitcher Framber Valdez has not allowed a hit through seven innings for the Astros against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.

The 30-year-old left-hander had a perfect game through five innings, but Valdez still faced the minimum of 18 batters through six. Houston led its AL West and Texas rival 2-0.

The perfect game ended when Jonah Heim opened the sixth by reaching on third baseman Alex Bregman’s throwing error. Robbie Grossman then grounded into a double play before Ezequiel Duran was called out on strikes.

Bregman’s error came when he fielded a high chopper on the run and threw low to first baseman Jon Singleton, who couldn’t make the scoop to keep the perfect game intact.

Marcus Semien walked with two outs in the seventh to finally get a fourth batter to the plate in an inning for Texas, but Josh Jung struck out on three pitches. It was Valdez's fifth strikeout.

It's been a little more than a year since Valdez threw the 16th no-hitter in Houston history in a 2-0 victory over Cleveland on Aug. 1, 2023. Ronel Blanco made it 17 against Toronto on April 1.

Texas slugger Corey Seager had one of the hardest-hit outs, flying out to left fielder Yordan Alvarez on the warning track for the second out of the fourth inning.

Valdez needed 78 pitches, 51 strikes, to get through seven innings, including just four in the fifth when Jung and Wyatt Langford flied out on the first pitch and Adolis García struck out on four pitches.

Valdez entered the game 5-0 in his previous seven starts, all Houston victories.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Protesters tee off against Trump and Musk in "Hands Off!" rallies across the U.S.

2025-04-06 04:11 Last Updated At：04:21

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration's actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.

More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.

Protesters assailed the Trump administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.

Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, spoke at the Washington protest, criticizing the Trump administration's treatment of the LBGTQ+ community.

“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” she said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives. This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it y’all. We don’t want this America, y’all. We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”

Thousands of people marched in New York City's midtown Manhattan. In Massachusetts thousands more gathered on Boston Common holding signs including “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”

In Ohio, hundreds rallied in the rain at the Statehouse in Columbus.

Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, said at the Columbus rally that he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.

“He’s tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It’s just an administration of grievances.”

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump's golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club's Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.

Archer Moran from Port St. Lucie, Florida, said, “They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security."

“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it's amazing how soon these protests are happening since he’s taken office.”

The president plans to go golfing again Sunday, according to the White House.

Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”

Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump or Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But the opposition movement has yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women's March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington, D.C., after Trump's first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd's killing in 2020.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women's reproductive rights.

“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what’s going on today, what’s happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. "It’s disgusting and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things — it is not the way to do it. They’re not listening to the people."

“All they’re doing is making sure that they have a parachute for them and their rich friends, and everybody else here that lives here — that makes the gears turn for this country — are just screwed at the end of the day,” she said.

Associated Press writers Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Fatima Hussein in West Palm Beach, Florida, and video journalist Guillermo Gonzalez in Charlotte, North Carolina, contributed to this report.