Detroit Tigers’ Scott Harris on bullpen market at trade deadline
Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris talks July 31, 2025, about his evaluation of the bullpen market at the trade deadline.
Two Detroit Tigers hit home runs in a series-winning effort on Sunday, Aug. 10, but they weren’t the biggest hits for either player.
It’s not a riddle – just an odd quirk for two Tigers in very different situations.Â
With two outs, a runner on second and a 2-2 count in Sunday’s first inning, left fielder Riley Greene smashed an RBI single into right-center field, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead – the lefty’s first RBI of August. Five innings later he smacked a two-run home run, his team-leading 27th this season, to give the Tigers a 9-3 lead en route to a 9-5 win over the Angels at Comerica Park.
The home run, of course, traveled farther and drove in more runs. But according to Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, Greene’s first-inning RBI single was just as important.
“I know the homer is sexy, and we got to change the scoreboard (by) two runs, but the two-strike, two-out base hit single is part of this offense’s identity,” Hinch said.
There’s at least one stat that agrees with Hinch. By FanGraphs’ measure of Win Probability Added, Greene’s single was not only bigger than the home run, but the most impactful play of the day, increasing the Tigers’ odds of winning by 9.5% alone.
There’s one answer to that riddle – when is a single is more important than a home run?
Greene, who had only three hits in 26 August plate appearances entering Sunday, said he wasn’t trying to do too much with his two-strike approach in his first at-bat.
“Just trying to put the ball in play, two strikes, runner on second, two outs, just trying to find a barrel to score that run,” he said.
It ended up as one of seven singles for the Tigers, with Hinch saying the offense “singled (the Angels) to death” in the series-clinching victory.
“When you piece enough of those together, then the big hit comes and you separate a little bit,” he said.
The “big hit” could have referred to Greene’s two-run shot in the sixth inning, the All-Star’s first home run since July 29. Or it could have referred to right fielder Kerry Carpenter’s three-run home run in the fourth inning, which gave the Tigers the lead for good.
But Carpenter had a softer hit earlier in the game that was arguably even more impactful.
With two outs on a 2-2 count in the top of the first (just like Greene’s first at-bat), Carpenter made contact on a check swing and sent the ball rolling toward third – effectively a hard bunt. It was hit so softly that Statcast didn’t even register an exit velocity on the hit.
But with Angels third baseman Luis Rengifo shaded towards shortstop, the ball rolled softly into the outfield, and Carpenter rolled into second base with one of the most improbable doubles of the season. It also put him in scoring position for Greene’s RBI single five pitches later, as the Tigers took a critical 1-0 lead and rallied together for four two-out hits in the inning.
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Carpenter’s soft double was different from Greene’s single, of course. For one, Carpenter’s looked more like a matter of luck and defensive positioning and Greene’s a measure of his hitting talent. For another, Greene has been not just cold but nearly frozen over in August while Carpenter has been red-hot, with four home runs and eight hits in nine games.
But as Hinch said of Greene’s hit, the two-strike, two-out hit by Carpenter played into the team’s offensive identity.
Carpenter’s pull-side power is becoming a bigger piece of the Tigers’ offense as of late. His fourth-inning blast was his 21st of the season, setting a career high for the lefty. The slugger said afterward that he has “figured it out” since coming off the injured list on July 27.
“The last week before I got hurt … that was when I kind of figured it out, and the whole time I was on the IL I was like, ‘Let’s figure out how to keep it,’ ” he said.
So whether it was an excuse-me double that kept the inning alive, or an RBI single that got the offense rolling, both Greene and Carpenter showed how a winning offense can have more than one look.
And if the two sluggers in the middle of the lineup can carry those lessons for the rest of the season, the Tigers might have the offense they need for their first American League Central crown since 2014.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com