Tigers crush Orioles, refuse to wave deadline white flag

The Tigers are supposed to be the team everyone's picking apart this week. Instead they spent Tuesday night in Detroit picking apart the Orioles' pitching staff, turning a routine midweek game into a laugher that had the scoreboard looking more like a football score by the middle innings.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

The Tigers aren’t ready to sell yet

That's the kind of night it was — Walker going deep with the board already reading lopsided, and the Tigers just piling on from there. By the time it was over, Detroit had scored in every inning it came to the plate, a feat so rare that this was reportedly just the 22nd time it's happened in MLB history and the 2nd time this month alone.

Eduardo Valencia was the headline act. He went deep twice in the same game, and per reporting he finished with 4 RBI on the night, turning a comfortable lead into an absolute rout. Gleyber Torres piled on too, reportedly adding a homer of his own and driving in 5. Starter Troy Melton did his part on the mound, working 7 innings and allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5, per reports.

Barstool Gambling

@stoolgambling

Eduardo Valencia goes yard for the second time tonight

Context matters here because of what's looming: the trade deadline hits August 3, and Detroit has spent the last week as one of the sport's biggest question marks. Ace Tarik Skubal is reportedly the single biggest domino on the entire market, with win-now contenders circling hard, and names like Casey Mize and Jack Flaherty have floated as sell-off candidates if the front office decides to blow things up.

Nights like this make that decision messier. You don't score in every inning of a 14-0 blowout and feel like a team that should be dismantling its roster. Whether it's enough to keep Detroit from moving pieces before the deadline is a different question, but for one night at least, the Tigers looked like a team that has no business selling anything.