41 swings, 0 whiffs?! Valdez's bizarre night nearly makes history

DETROIT -- The Rays rolled into the Motor City as statistically the toughest offense to strike out in the American League. Framber Valdez took the mound at Comerica Park looking to thrive more on groundouts than strikeouts, as is his reputation over a productive career.

Still, no one might have predicted what unfolded Monday night.

No strikeouts? Maybe. It had happened only once in Valdez’s previous 191 MLB starts, a 2019 first-inning exit in Texas in which the Rangers chased him after nine batters and 28 pitches with just two outs recorded.

But no swings and misses? At all? Any count? Even for a sinkerballer, that was borderline historic.

The Rays swung at 41 of Valdez’s 84 pitches across five pitch types during the Tigers' 4-1 loss on Monday. They whiffed on none.

It was the most swings in a game against a Tigers pitcher without a miss since pitch tracking officially began in 2008. Kenny Rogers had the previous high of 33 swings against the Blue Jays on April 18, 2008, early in his final season. Michigan native Duane Below is the only other Tiger with 30, back in 2011.

Monday was the most swings in a game without a miss against any MLB pitcher since June 4, 2019, when the Reds had 44 swings without a whiff against Cardinals rookie Génesis Cabrera in his second MLB start. The MLB record in the pitch-tracking era is 46, set by then-Ranger Tommy Hunter on July 15, 2010, and matched by Tampa Bay’s Matt Garza that September.

Even if it wasn’t altogether surprising for Valdez or the Tigers, it was challenging. Valdez threw the kitchen sink at the Rays in an attempt to keep their hitters off balance. His first two pitches to former Tiger Ryan Vilade leading off the third inning were cutters, a pitch he hadn’t thrown in a regular-season game since 2023. Vilade swung at neither, working ahead in the count before hitting a 3-1 sinker. He grounded out to Kevin McGonigle, by far the busiest man on the field Monday.

“No strikeouts, but it doesn’t mean I was not effective,” Valdez said through translation from Tigers director of Spanish communications Carlos Guillen. “I just did my best to get them to hit ground balls.”

That Valdez survived no whiffs and no strikeouts to toss a quality start, allowing four runs (three earned) over six innings, is a credit to the defense behind him. McGonigle made nine plays at third base behind Valdez, including five outs in a seven-batter span during the fourth and fifth innings. His second-inning play to retire Yandy Díaz, diving for a ball down the line and firing across the infield to beat Díaz sliding into first, drew an ovation from the crowd of 23,265 and from Valdez himself.

“We played some good defense behind him,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a third baseman make that many plays.”

It was a display of the work McGonigle has put in with infield coach Billy Boyer to improve his glovework since the season began, showing more trust in making plays with just his glove hand.

“Through the Minor Leagues at short, I would always field with two hands,” McGonigle explained. “Third base kind of taught me that even at short, you can field a lot of ground balls with one hand. I think what helped me a lot is just playing third base. Playing different positions helped me think differently at shortstop and now at third base.”

Said Hinch: “The more he’s become one-handed, the better he’s gotten. … At this level, as fast as the game is, and the different angles that we’re asking him to play at multiple positions, the one-handed approach has been really, really good.”

Still, Detroit’s defense could only do so much. Vilade’s first-inning single, a 113 mph line drive into left field, reached Brett Callahan so quickly that it bounced off the left fielder's glove for an error that allowed Vilade to advance, setting up a two-run, 28-pitch opening inning. Jorge Mateo’s leadoff double down the left-field line set up the Rays for back-to-back bunts in the fourth: Nick Fortes for the sacrifice and Chandler Simpson on the squeeze.

“They’re very aggressive. They’re very fast, too,” Valdez said. “I did my best to have them hit ground balls as much as they could.”

Jonathan Aranda crushed Valdez’s 1-1 slider over the plate for a home run leading off the sixth to cap the scoring.

“They just got a lot of at-bats on him,” Hinch said. “He’d held them down enough, but anytime he elevated, it got hit pretty hard.”