We are going to grant a mulligan to Houston's Framber Valdez for a less-than-scintillating effort against the Orioles in his most-recent start last Saturday after his preceding three efforts were outstanding, with a 1.27 ERA. Moreover, the Astros had won in his previous ten starts. We are not inclined to grant the same pass to Framber's KC counterpart Seth Lugo, who has been showing signs of decline this month, especially his last four starts in which he's posted a 7.59 ERA . last night's 6-3 loss at Minute Maid also suggest the Royals might be in the early stages of a brief dip in form with the carryover of blowing a 5-2 lead on Wednesday and a chance to sweep four from first-place Cleveland . Play Astros on ML