Detroit — As a slicing line drive off the bat of Riley Greene whirled down into the left-field corner of Comerica Park, just beyond the outstretched glove of Reds left fielder Spencer Steer, thousands of rain-soaked Tigers fans erupted.
Zach McKinstry scored easily from third, and rumbling in shortly after him from second base was Jake Rogers, and not too far behind him from first was Kerry Carpenter, who scored just as easily to cap off a four-run sixth inning for Detroit.
“I would say that one might be ahead of it just ’cause you know, three RBIs and a double,” Greene said, considering which of his two hits felt best on Friday.
Greene’s bases-clearing double in the bottom of the sixth blew open an otherwise close game highlighted by the five combined solo home runs between the teams in the first five innings. But with Keider Montero eating up innings after a Brant Hurter open and the offense putting up a four spot in the sixth inning, the Tigers opened another series at home with a win, beating Cincinnati, 11-5.
Gleyber Torres hit two solo home runs, plus a sacrifice fly, and Javier Báez added another for good measure. And Greene powered the offensive charge, going 2-for-5 with a solo home run, plus his double, as he finished with four RBI on the day, including becoming one of the fastest players in Tigers history to hit the 200 career RBI mark.
“It feels good to be able to hit a ball like that,” Greene said of flexing his opposite-field power. “I feel like I haven’t been able to, you know, hit homers the other way in a while, so it feels good.”
Torres came through in the leadoff spot Friday, starting the Tigers’ offense instantly.
He hit the first pitch Reds starter Nick Martinez threw all game 411 feet into the left field bleachers, giving Detroit a 1-0 lead before Cincinnati could record an out. It was Torres’ sixth home run of the season.
For Torres, Friday might be the high point, to date, on one of the best seasons the two-time All Star has had. He’s walked more times than he’s struck out (33 to 30 after Friday), is batting .267 and has 16 extra base hits, seven of them home runs.
“He’s just an incredible hitter because of the discipline and the knowledge of the strike zone,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I mean, he is the epitome of control of the strike zone and the results are coming with it.”
But it wouldn’t only be Detroit bashing long balls on Friday.
In the top of the third inning, Reds leadoff hitter Nick Friedl leveled the score with a solo home run into the right-field stands. That lead only lasted for a few minutes, as Greene reached out and launched a fastball low and away 426 feet into the visiting bullpen in left center field for a two-out blast.
And his go-ahead shot in the third inning was Greene’s 14th home run of the year, second on the Tigers behind only Spencer Torkelson’s 16 home runs entering Friday.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the solo home run show continued, this time with Báez as the main act.
He hit a one-out home run that could’ve been robbed by Steer, but the ball missed his outstretched mitt and bounced off the yellow padding on the top of the outfield fence in left center field, into the visitors’ bullpen.
And if four solo home runs wasn’t enough, 23-year-old Reds phenom shortstop Elly De La Cruz provided the fifth, as he roped a home run into the right-field tunnel off of Montero in the top of the fifth inning, cutting Detroit’s lead to one run, 3-2.
Montero pitched the bulk of the game for Detroit on Friday, coming in after Hurter started in an “opener” role, facing the first four batters of the game, and recording a pair of outs, before Montero came on. The plan was not to pull the plug on Hurter so early, though.
And from the jump, Montero had to make a pitch, as he inherited runners on first and third base with two outs in the top of the first inning, inheriting a jam the Reds put starter Hurter into.
“I didn’t necessarily want Keider to come in, inheriting those runs,” Hinch said. “But if he (Hurter) was in trouble, that was a strategy, if it happened early.”
In one pitch, Montero induced Tyler Stephenson to pop out to center field, ending the threat.
After a smooth second inning, where Montero only gave up a walk, he’d face some hiccups in the third, fourth and fifth frames. In the third, he gave up the leadoff home run to Friedl, but came back and finished the inning with three straight outs.
Montero’s biggest jam arose in the fourth inning, as he got into a bases-loaded jam with two outs, giving up a trio of singles. Facing Friedl again, Montero got a pop up to Zach McKinstry at third base that harmlessly ended the threat.
And after he gave up his second home run of the game in the fifth inning, a near frozen rope into the right field tunnel of De La Cruz’s bat, Montero came back and got two of the next three batters out to end the inning.
All day, he was able to keep hitters off balance with his off speed and a strong day with his curveball, and frequently wriggled out of jams behind those pitches and an attacking mindset.
“It’s just forget what happened before, forget what was the reason why those runners are on base and just focus on the next one that is about to be at the plate,” Montero said, via a translator.
With two outs in the sixth inning, and a man on second base, Montero was pulled for lefty Tyler Holton. Montero finished throwing 5 innings, allowing seven hits, two earned runs, a walk and striking out four.
After the outing, Montero also gave credit to catcher Rogers, starting on Friday as he’s moved into a secondary role behind Dillon Dingler since getting injured. Rogers was key in helping a number of pitchers navigating trouble, Hinch said, as he praised the catcher postgame.
A 2-for-4 night at the plate with a double, two RBI and a key walk in the sixth inning were just icing on the cake for Rogers.
“It kind of came full circle tonight to get some pitchers through some innings, where there was a big pitch, that the game could swing one way or another,” Hinch said of Rogers. “I love his presence.”
Holton came on and held the Reds scoreless before giving way to Chase Lee, and the righty also kept Cincinnati scoreless in his innings.
So when Torres hit his second home run of the night, an opposite-field solo home run into right field in the bottom of the seventh inning, or when the Tigers tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, they were mostly just piling on.
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
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