DETROIT — They sat there at a table adorned with a blue cloth, the Detroit Tigers’ white Olde English D front and center for the cameras. They are two faces of this franchise, two central figures in a plan first devised a long time ago. They traveled here to this spot — in the interview room, in the spotlight, in the afterglow of a 9-3 postseason victory — in such different ways.
Javier Báez was the star shortstop signed to a $140 million contract, the player who spent years derided for his poor play, booed for the chases and slammed for the sunk cost. He has played on the game’s biggest stage, won the World Series with Chicago and given a thumbs-down to fans while playing for the New York Mets. He learned to handle the hate, accepted the heaviness of the crown.
“The boos, I don’t mind that,” Báez said Wednesday night. “I’ve had boos all my career. I feel like that’s the desire of the fans to see us have success, and you’ve got to let the fans be fans.”
Riley Greene was the prized prospect, the prodigious hitter who carried a natural swing and infectious energy. He struggled, then found his footing, then made two All-Star games, then stumbled again. He struck out 201 times this season. As his at-bat quality dissolved, he hit only .195 in September. Perhaps hardened by the critiques, his postgame quotes turned stale. It is what it is, he’s said game after game. That’s baseball, he’s uttered too many times to count.
Greene hit a weak rollover to first base in the fourth inning of Wednesday’s American League Division Series Game 4 against the Seattle Mariners, and the Comerica Park crowd let out a lively, collective boooo. The disdain usually felt for Báez had transferred over to the young outfielder who once represented nothing but hope.
“It’s a little mixed emotions, for sure, when you’re getting booed in big-time games because he’s been unbelievable for us all season,” said Spencer Torkelson, Greene’s closest clubhouse friend.
At that juncture in the game, those boos were arguably the biggest noise a midday crowd had unleashed. The Tigers were looking lifeless, listless and on the verge of losing it all. They trailed 2-1 in the series and 3-0 in the game.
Javy, you are magical 🪄 pic.twitter.com/9WmYFA1Wjl
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) October 8, 2025
And then, once again in this bizarro season, something changed. The bats came alive. Báez — a player who entered the year on the brink of getting bought out, a hitter who thrived in the first half and then slumped to the finish line — continued his stupendous postseason hot streak. As the Tigers fought for their lives amid a miserable collapse, he finished the regular season on a 6-for-16 heater. A combination of focus and adrenaline, he said, helped bring out his best.
When the team clawed back to clinch its postseason spot, Báez had yelled in the postgame handshake line: “I’m going back to the playoffs!” Here in October, the shortstop who bats ninth has become the team’s best offensive asset. He’s hitting .346.
“Javy loves these big games, these big crowds, these opportunities to do something great,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “And he is a steady force in the middle of our field. Every time I go out on the mound to change a pitcher — which seems to be a lot — Javy’s always there with some sort of calmness, even more so in the postseason than in the regular season.”
In the fifth inning, with a runner on second on his team rallying, Báez let loose a hardy hack and sent a ball flying deep into the afternoon sky. The ball shot toward the left-field foul pole. The crowd began cheering. Báez looked and leaned, trying to will the ball fair.
It went foul.
“It’s not easy, honestly, when you hit a home run foul,” Báez said. “Probably 90 percent (of the time), you strike out.”
Báez battled to a 2-2 count, and his final swing turned into a 104 mph laser up the middle, a base hit to center field that brought home Jahmai Jones and tied the game. Jones pumped his fist. Báez rounded first and backpedaled back to the bag with big-game swagger.
“It’s very rewarding,” Hinch said, “to watch him play with some joy.”
By the next inning, Greene was up at the plate. His job was to lead off, to keep the torch lit for a Tigers offense that has struggled for so much of their recent spell. He was 0 for his past 9 at that point, and the pressure was mounting. Then he got a 1-0 slider.
Facing Seattle left-hander Gabe Speier, the outfielder who got pinch-hit for against a lefty only a few days ago, authored the biggest moment of his young career. Through slumps and skids all season, Hinch has issued warnings: When Greene gets going, someone will pay. Wednesday, Greene finally connected like the player he was drafted to be, the one who put a ball atop the old Pepsi Porch the first time he took batting practice in this ballpark.
Greene sent a ball soaring to right-center. From the bench, ace Tarik Skubal tried to track it. He saw the swing and heard the ball. He thought maybe it was traveling to left-center. He soon realized the ball was hit to right-center, and not just back. It was way back.
The ball finally landed in the seats, 454 feet later. The Tigers took the lead on the longest — and most important — home run Greene has ever hit at Comerica Park.
“I haven’t hit a ball like that in a while,” Greene said. “It feels pretty good, and I want to do it more often.”
Said Torkelson: “It was a great moment, maybe a weight lifted off his shoulders to free him up in the box … because when he’s free, there’s really no one better.”
Clinging to a lead, hoping to force a winner-take-all Game 5 back in Seattle, Báez was back up later in the inning. Instead of boos? Fans rained down with chants. Ja-vy, Ja-vy.
Mariners right-hander Eduard Bazardo floated a 1-0 slider over the plate. The hitter they call El Mago, the magician, has disappeared for such long stretches but reawakened here with all the cards down on the table. Báez crushed the ball out on a line, a two-run home run that boosted the Tigers’ lead to 7-3 and served as what felt like the knockout blow. The swing brought to mind something outfielder Wenceel Pérez said after the Tigers downed the Guardians in the AL Wild Card Series. “This is the time when Javy is him. This is the time when he plays like the player that he is.”
Detroit finished with nine runs, the most the Tigers have scored in a postseason game since Game 6 of the 1968 World Series. This Game 4 was jam-packed with storylines to the point Hinch sat down for his postgame news conference and joked: “Not much to cover.”
But no one told this tale quite like Báez and Greene. A veteran and a young player. A past-his-prime star and a hitter still reaching for higher ceilings. Neither is perfect, and no one knows what their futures will hold. But Wednesday, in a win-or-stay-home game, these two were everything the Detroit Tigers could have asked for.
“I know how much this matters to our fan base, to our city, to our season,” Hinch said. “We’re one more win away from bringing baseball back to Comerica again.”
(Top photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)