Benches clear in Detroit as Red Sox torch Tigers, Framber Valdez

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on May 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Framber Valdez’s 60th and final pitch hit Trevor Story in the upper back.

The 94.4-mph four-seam fastball was Valdez’s first to the Red Sox shortstop, and was a blatant ‘Get me out of here’ move by the frustrated left-hander, who had just yielded back-to-back solo home runs to Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, which pushed Boston’s run total to 10.

Home-plate umpire Adam Beck tried to calm an incensed Story. Both dugouts cleared. Pitchers raced in from the bullpens.

Valdez was ejected. His lack of protest confirmed the intentionality. Back in the dugout, Contreras and Story appeared to be bonding over what had just transpired. Throughout the incident, Contreras lived up to what he said during his first media videoconference following the offseason trade from St. Louis: “If you play against me and you don’t like me, that’s fine with me, but at some point if we play together you’re going to love me. I play to win, I don’t play to mess around, I don’t play to make friends on other teams.”

“We’re a team that wins and loses together,” Contreras told NESN’s Jahmai Webster postgame. “As a team, you have to stick together.”

Valdez’s ire had built quickly as he pitched through some of the worst innings of his nine-year major league career. With two outs in the top of the first, Abreu singled and stole second, then advanced to third as Story reached on a fielding error by third baseman Zach McKinstry and stole second. Ceddanne Rafaela’s second home run of the year gave Boston a 3-0 lead. It marked the second consecutive game with a Red Sox three-run homer, and their third such blast in their last five games.

The Tigers starter worked around a one-out hit-by-pitch to catcher Connor Wong to pitch a scoreless, four-batter second inning.

The third inning was an implosion. After a leadoff walk to Contreras and strikeout of Abreu, Valdez gave up five straight singles, the last four run-scoring hits, to Story, Rafaela, DH Andruw Monasterio, third baseman Caleb Durbin and Wong. The Tigers challenged the tag play on Wong’s, and lost. It marked the most consecutive hits Valdez had ever allowed.

Valdez finally recorded the second out of the inning by getting Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground into a force-out, but the veteran utility-man picked up an RBI, too.

Then, a game-sealing fourth inning of chaos.

Valdez allowed a new career-worst 10 runs (seven earned) on nine hits, one walk and three strikeouts. In total, the Red Sox tallied a dozen hits, two walks, and struck out 11 times. They were 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base.

Meanwhile, Jovani Moran had shakily pitched the first inning for Boston, which opted to use an opener ahead of the struggling Brayan Bello. Detroit plated two runs and loaded the bases before Moran finished a 38-pitch first.

Bello entered Tuesday’s outing with a 9.12 ERA over six starts this season. Beginning in the bottom of the second, he managed season-highs of seven innings and seven strikeouts. He yielded just one earned run on four hits. It marked the right-hander’s first game without multiple runs allowed, and just the second time he only issued one walk. The performance lowered his ERA to 7.44.

“He needs to trust his stuff a little more,” Contreras said of Bello.

Bello made the longest relief outing by a Red Sox pitcher since Casey Fossum on July 24, 2002. It had been over three decades the last Red Sox relief appearance of at least seven innings with one or zero runs allowed, by Tom Bolton on July 1, 1990.

In the ninth, a lifelong dream came true. Alec Gamboa took the mound for his major league debut, and with his parents cheering in the stands, shut the Tigers down 1-2-3. Hao-Yu Lee challenged Gamboa’s last pitch, but the called strike stood.