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CHICAGO — Starting pitcher Framber Valdez allowed seven straight baserunners to open the game and didn’t make it out of the first inning as the Detroit Tigers were routed by the Chicago Cubs 11-2 on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
The Tigers (47-54) and Cubs (57-44) have split the first two games of the series and will play the finale Wednesday.
Valdez faced 10 batters and retired only two of them.
Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the game with a triple, and Valdez loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batter. The Cubs followed with four straight singles, one of which was a wind-aided popup that fell in shallow right, to score four runs.
After Valdez finally retired a couple of batters, he walked Crow-Armstrong to force in a fifth run. With Valdez having already thrown 42 pitches in the inning, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch decided enough was enough.
Right-hander Ty Madden, recalled on Tuesday to take the spot of the injured Jack Flaherty, entered the game.
Madden issued another bases-loaded walk before escaping the inning and closing the book on a rough outing for Valdez.
It was tied for the shortest start of his career. He also threw only two-thirds of an inning for the Astros against Texas on July 11, 2019, when Hinch was the manager in Houston.
The game wasn’t over, but it might as well have been.
The Tigers’ offense mustered nothing against Cubs starter David Peterson, who had struggled in three starts in Chicago since being acquired from the New York Mets. But he went 6 2/3 shutout innings on Tuesday, allowing just three hits.
Madden threw 75 pitches and worked through the fourth inning. Brenan Hanifee picked up a couple of innings, giving up a two-run homer to Michael Conforto in the fifth.
Even the Tigers’ attempts to bring the game to a merciful end didn’t go well. Utility man Zach McKinstry, throwing 35 mph meatballs, walked three batters and gave up a couple of hits in a two-run eighth inning.
The Tigers were forced to go to another position player in the eighth. But catcher Jake Rogers, normally a reliable garbage-time pitcher, also struggled to throw strikes until he ditched the eephus pitch and started thrown 82 mph fastballs. He loaded the bases and then struck out back-to-back batters to end the inning.
All-Star catcher Dillon Dingler, who spent most of the game at DH before getting put back behind the plate when Rogers came on to pitch, was the lone bright spot for the Tigers. He reached base three times, including a double in the second and a two-run homer in the ninth inning to break the shutout.
Up next: The Tigers and Cubs wrap up their series Wednesday at 8:10 p.m. Eastern time. The game will be televised by ESPN.
Tigers right-hander Keider Montero (6-5, 3.22 ERA) will face Cubs right-hander Colin Rea (7-6, 4.74 ERA).
Montero hasn’t let a detour to the bullpen slow his impressive 2026 season. In his last four outings, all in relief, he has posted a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings, striking out 11. He has picked up a win and a save during that stretch.
Rea, 36, never really carved out a steady job in the big leagues until returning after spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons in Japan. He has been a steady, if unspectacular, starter in Milwaukee in 2023 and 2024 and now Chicago since his return.
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