Nolan Schanuel crosses the plate after starting the Angels’ fifth-inning demolition of Framber Valdez Monday.

Framber Valdez started looking a little shaky in the fourth inning Monday. The good news was his Astros supporting him with a 4-1 lead against the Angels and padding it to 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth. The bad news was the top of the fifth.

It wasn’t just that the Angels blasted seven runs in that half inning. It was Astros manager Joe Espada leaving Valdez in to take a beating like that in the first place. Especially considering Espada’s postgame valedictory after the Angels finished what they finally started, a 9-7 win for their fourth win in five games.

“He just kind of was lost,” Espada told reporters postgame. “Started leaving some pitches in the heart of the plate and they put some really good swings on them. “His stuff was really good . . . just that fifth inning he kind of lost the feel for the zone.”

Valdez didn’t look too good in the fourth, either. After more or less cruising through the first three, he threw thirteen pitches only five of which looked genuinely good. He may have been fortunate that the Angels got only two singles in the inning while otherwise grounding into a force out and whacking into an inning-ending double play.

But after Astros left fielder Mauricio Dubón hit a two-run homer off Angels starter Reid Detmers in the bottom of the fourth to set that short-lived 6-1 Astros lead, the Angels went to work almost at once in the top of the fifth, when designated hitter Willie Calhoun smacked a two-strike single to right.

They weren’t exactly looking to detonate bombs. Nobody overswung, nobody tried to turn into a B-2 pilot. But sometimes you can just swing sensibly and discover you’ve a) still got some serious munitions in your bat; and, b) a pitcher who’s throwing you cannonballs without gunpowder behind them.

Valdez walked shortstop Zach Neto on a full count and struck second baseman Kyren Paris out to follow. Up stepped first baseman Nolan Schanuel, and Valdez hung a changeup that got hung into the right field seats. With one swing the Angels cut the Astros’ lead to two.

After a ground out right back to the box, Valdez was all over the place working to left fielder Tyler Ward before Ward finally singled up the pipe. He hung another changeup, sort of, to center fielder Kevin Pillar (he whom the Angels found in the junkyard after Mike Trout went down with a knee injury), and was lucky Pillar could only turn it into a single to left.

Espada still didn’t seem to have a bullpen option at the ready. He’d pay for it with Valdez’s next two pitches. Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe saw a curve ball hanging deliciously enough to send well into the Crawford Boxes, and right fielder Jo Adell sent a hanging sinker the other way into the right field seats almost immediately to follow.

Just like that, the RBI single by Astros catcher Yainer Díaz and three-run homer by second base mainstay José Altuve in the bottom of the second to stake that early 4-1 lead became pleasant memories for Minute Maid Park fans and just a nuisance of mosquitoes agains which the Angels opened seven cans of Raid in the fifth.

“Things got out of hand there,” Valdez said postgame. “The game started off well and sometimes things happened.”

Unlike Valdez’s previous start, which came a day after the Astros practically emptied the bullpen following Ronel Blanco’s ejection (and subsequent suspension) for sticky stuff in the glove, and which saw Valdez take his team deep en route a 3-0 win, the Astro pen wasn’t exactly taxed for Monday.

But no relief was seen until the top of the sixth, with Rafael Montero taking over. He got a rude hello when Neto caught hold of a rising fastball and sent it to the Boxes. That was all the scoring for the Angels and all they really needed, despite some Astro friskiness in the ninth.

Adell may have broken the Astro spirit to stay for the game when he took off running after Díaz’s leadoff drive to right and took a flying leap to steal a homer from Díaz before he hit the fence padding. “He’s growing in front of your face,” said Angels manager Ron Washington postgame. “That was a big-time play and that play right there may have saved the game.”

It might have, considering Dubón singling to follow and Kyle Tucker driving him home with a base hit an out later. But Angels reliever Carlos Estevez held on despite walking Yordan Alvarez to get Alex Bregman—the veteran third baseman who was usually capable with first and second and two out, able to win it with one swing, until this year (.125/.125/.125 slash in this situation)—to fly out to not-too-deep center for the game.

The Angels set a new precedent at Espada’s and Valdez’s expense, too: this was the first time in the Angels’ history that four players 25 or under cleared the fences in the same game.

“I didn’t realize it until after the fact,” O’Hoppe told reporters. “None of us have said it out loud, but I feel like all of us internally had been waiting for a moment like that for a little while.”

“They’re growing up,” Washington observed. “They’re starting to figure things out. They really didn’t try to do too much and they ended up doing a lot. And that’s what it’s about.” Don’t look now, but they’re 7-6 in their past thirteen games including the four-of-five sealed Monday.

Maybe that thinking brings further unforeseen reward. Especially when the other guys’ manager doesn’t have an immediate bullpen answer for a starter who’s begun losing his stuff clearly enough. The Angels won’t get that lucky that often, but maybe continuing to think less-brings-more begins making their own luck.