A's Broadcaster Believes Houston Astros Incident '100% Intentional'

Before "the incident" was the grand slam that Valdez allowed. The New York Yankees held a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth with two outs and the bases loaded. Valdez's first pitch of the at-bat was well inside to Trent Grisham. Right before the second pitch, which Braden notes, Valdez gives a brief shake of the head, and his catcher, César Salazar, motions for him to step off the rubber.

Instead, Valdez throws a sinker middle-middle, and it ends up in the seats. That's probably not where Valdez wanted to put that one, and perhaps he was blaming Salazar for distracting him during his wind-up. Still, he could have missed so many other places besides the middle of the plate. Heck, the pitch right before missed by plenty and he was presumably trying with that one.

Following the home run, Framber fired a fastball when Salazar was clearly looking for anything but. Valdez said after the game that Salazar called for a curveball, but he had a sinker in his mind. "I crossed up, it's my mistake."

Salazar said after the game, "no, didn't get crossed up. [There] was a good bit of Yankees fans, so it was pretty loud after the grand slam. Maybe my PitchCom wasn't in the right spot, so I pressed the wrong button, you know?" Chandler Rome reported that both players were pulled into the manager's office following Tuesday's loss.

Watch this video and see if this was an accident. Dallas Braden sure doesn't think it was, and the explanations that have been provided have been fairly flimsy.

The fact that Valdez fires the pitch, sees it hit Salazar, and then turns his back immediately after what is expected to be a mix up is very odd behavior if this wasn't intentional. The look on Salazar's face also didn't seem like he was enjoying that last pitch.

Typically a catcher would go out to the mound in that spot, following a big home run, a badly missed pitch, and a cross-up, but it was clear that Valdez was in no mood to listen to his catcher.

The A's and Astros have had their own issues over the years, as have the Astros and Yankees, so it's a bit odd to have the Astros going at themselves. Apparently they've run out of enemies to poke.

It will be interesting to see what kind of discipline, if any, the team hands down because they currently hold a spot in the postseason, and will be chasing a World Series title in just about a month's time.

Valdez will also hit free agency at the end of the year, and perhaps this is the straw that gets him out of the AL West.