Bob Nightengale not buying Tigers pitcher Framber Valdez’s innocent explanation for beanball

Detroit Tigers pitcher Framber Valdez was ejected from the game from the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday for hitting Trevor Story with a pitch. Story believed the pitch from Valdez was on purpose.

Story is not alone in that belief, despite Valdez claiming that the pitch was accidental, Bob Nightengale of USA Today is not buying it.

“Valdez’s selfish act of immaturity was so outrageous in the Tigers’ 10-3 shellacking to the Boston Red Sox that when he intentionally hit Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story with a 94.4 mph fastball in the middle of his back during his latest temper tantrum, even his own manager couldn’t stand up for him,” Nightengale wrote.

Nightengale was right, A.J. Hinch did not stand up for his pitcher. Instead, he lamented the event.

“We play a really good brand of baseball here,’’ A.J. Hinch said. “That doesn’t feel like it. That’s not judging intent. I have no idea. But when you go out on the field and end up in those confrontations, you usually feel like you’re in your right. It didn’t feel good being out there.

Valdez did try to explain that it was not on purpose, even though it looked like it.

“It was not on purpose. It might’ve looked like that but it wasn’t. I was trying to throw a strike after two consecutive home runs, and the pitch just came out of my hand,” Valdez said through his interpreter.

Still, Nightengale hammered home the point. This is the same player who beamed his own player just a year ago, and the same one who has had this type of outburst in the past.

“There is no chance that this same man who drilled his own teammate in the chest with a fastball last season with the Houston Astros would now intentionally hit an opponent. No way, right? Right? Anyone else believe him?” Nightengale continued.

Valdez has noted he does not expect to be suspended, but when no one is backing him up, it’s hard to imagine that a meeting with MLB is not coming, and a possible benching from the league, or by his own manager, could follow.

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