DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Tigers pitcher Framber Valdez was suspended for five games and fined on Wednesday, one day after he was ejected for hitting Boston’s Trevor Story with a pitch during a 10-2 loss in which he allowed a career-high 10 runs.
Valdez was at first banned for six games by MLB, which cited him for intentionally throwing a pitch at Story, but the penalty was reduced in an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ association. He started serving the penalty during Wednesday night’s series finale and barring rainouts will be eligible to pitch Wednesday at the New York Mets.
Detroit already is missing injured starting pitchers Tarik Skubal (elbow), Casey Mize (hamstring) and Justin Verlander (hip).
“Generally when you have an event like last night where there’s a disruption of play and there’s a guy kicked out of the game for what is deemed throwing at somebody, that doesn’t come for free,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.
Hinch was suspended for one game for what MLB said was Valdez’s intentional actions and was to serve the penalty Wednesday.
Valdez already allowed eight runs in the first three innings when Willson Contreras hit a 449-foot homer on the first pitch of the fourth. Contreras watched the flight of the ball from home plate before flipping his bat.
Two pitches later, Wilyer Abreu boosted the score to 10-2 when he homered into the right-field seats, a 109.1 mph drive. His next pitch was a 94.4 mph offering that hit Story between the numbers on his back. Valdez had not thrown a four-seam fastball since last Aug. 3 when he hit Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela under the left arm with a 95.5 pitch with a 3-1 count leading off the sixth inning. The Astros trailed the Red Sox 6-1.
When home plate umpire Adam Beck and Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler got between Story and the mound Tuesday, the Red Sox dugout emptied, followed by Detroit’s bench and both bullpens. There was no physical contact and few harsh words.
Valdez denied hitting Story on purpose, saying the unfamiliar four-seam fastball got away from him.
Last season while pitching for Houston, Valdez denied intentionally hitting his catcher César Salazar in the chest with a pitch almost immediately after he gave up a grand slam in a loss to the New York Yankees. Two pitches after Trent Grisham’s slam in the Yankees’ 7-1 victory on Sept. 2, Valdez crossed up catcher César Salazar by throwing a 92.8 mph sinker to Anthony Volpe. Valdez and Salazar both said after the game the pitch that hit the catcher wasn’t on purpose.
Earlier in the season, Valdez expressed frustration about the defensive positioning on a play in the sixth inning that led to the only run he allowed in the Astros’ 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on July 28.
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