Part of me feels like I might not be doing my job particularly well because I’m going to spend so much time focusing on that embarrassing performance by Valdez, as will most people. Still, it’s not like the team was going to put together any sort of rally. They didn’t come ready to play tonight. They weren’t facing great pitching, and outside of a first inning rally, there was never really much of a threat. As bad as Valdez was, three of those runs were unearned because Zach McKinstry couldn’t feel a pretty basic ground ball at third base. It is a team-wide issue, but tonight Framber Valdez became the poster child for it.
I’m obviously uploading this just after the game had ended, but I’m very interested to see how A.J. Hinch talks about this to the media. This is a guy who has stuck his neck out for his pitcher in the past. He believes in him and has felt like he’s in a great environment. The results have been disastrous. He’s completely lost his command and can’t locate his curveball anywhere other than the middle of the plate, but now he’s created a story, and to AJ‘s credit, he usually tries to extinguish a lot of these fires. I remember in his first year when Tony LaRussa was trying to start some beef late in the season, AJ put the kibosh on it pretty quickly. This is an issue that you can’t really run from. These are now repeated offenses, and it would be a footnote if the team were succeeding, but it can’t be ignored when you’re failing.
I don’t really have much else to say. That game disgusted me. I know that we play a lot of these things, but this feels like a checkpoint in the season. At some point, you have to rally, and right now, vibes are at an all-time low. Detroit will look to avoid a sweep tomorrow with Jack Flaherty on the mound going up against Sonny Gray.