Last autumn’s bullpen nightmare has revisited the Tigers, who no doubt wonder if the Jose Valverde experiment is finally history, writes Lynn Henning.
They lost another brilliantly pitched game Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium when, with two outs in the ninth inning, Valverde hung an 0-2 slider to Lorenzo Cain, who walloped it into the seats for a two-run home run that tied the score, 2-2, an inning before the Royals scored the winning run against Phil Coke.
The Tigers have a certified bullpen crisis that is hardly confined to Valverde. They have had back-end issues since Octavio Dotel went down with a bad elbow, which was compounded when Brayan Villarreal and Al Alburquerque could no longer find the strike zone. . . .
Valverde has now allowed five home runs in his last 5 1⁄3 innings. Although still in first place, a closer’s self-immolation threatens to destroy a Tigers team’s clubhouse harmony when Justin Verlander’s masterpiece Wednesday disintegrated, as did a gallant piece of pitching by Max Scherzer 12 days ago in Baltimore.
