Houston Astros catcher Cesar Salazar and Framber Valdez had a bizarre exchange against the New York Yankees. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Astros pitcher Framber Valdez and catcher César Salazar were not on the same page during Tuesday's loss against the Yankees. The pair seemed out of sync on at least a couple moments throughout the game, one of which resulted in a grand slam for Yankees outfielder Trent Grisham.
During that incident, Valdez was preparing to pitch when Salazar appeared to try to gesture for him to step off the mound. Salazar was waving his hand at Valdez, seemingly not in agreement over what pitch was coming.
Valdez may have wished he'd listened, as Grisham smacked the pitch over the wall for a grand slam.
On the very next at bat, Valdez and Salazar were again on different wavelengths. Salazar was setting up inside on the hitter and appeared to be expecting something offspeed, but Valdez threw a 93 mph fastball straight at Salazar and ended up nailing him in the chest with it. Have a look at the bizarre sequence:
Salazar flinched as if he wasn't expecting the pitch, while Valdez quickly turned around seemingly in hopes of avoiding making eye contact with his catcher. Salazar looked perplexed and a bit miffed by the antics of his pitcher, but returned to his station behind home plate and continued to catch.
Valdez had one of his worst outings of the season, surrendering six runs and eight hits across five innings. He doesn't usually pitch to Salazar, who was in the lineup Tuesday in place of Yainer Diaz.