Detroit, MI
Riley Greene makes key discovery as Detroit Tigers lean into City Connect superstition
Riley Greene is a superstitious baseball player.
“Not as much as I used to be,” Greene insisted.
To be fair, Greene hasn’t changed his walk-up song from “Cowgirls” by Morgan Wallen despite a rough stretch at the plate recently, but throughout his three-year MLB career, he has been one of the most superstitious players with the Detroit Tigers, often switching his walk-up song in search of snapping a slump.
Now, after Greene had some of his best swings in the month of May during Friday’s 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Tigers are leaning into the City Connect superstition.
“I just started (my swing) a little earlier,” Greene said. “I wish I would have known that a couple weeks ago.”
The Tigers decided to wear the City Connect uniforms for Saturday’s game, even though they weren’t initially supposed to wear them after Friday’s win snapped a five-game losing streak. After the win, catcher Jake Rogers polled all the players about the idea of wearing the City Connect uniforms for Saturday’s game.
Other teams have bought into the City Connect superstition, too.
“The whole organization allows it,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s actually kind of turned into a thing around the league, where teams wonder if there’s a little bit of good fortune with the City Connects.”
ROOKIE RAKES: Tigers rookie Colt Keith hits first home run of MLB career. It wasn’t a fluke
Greene, meanwhile, has struggled to find his groove throughout the last 18 games, hitting .169 with one home run, five walks and 22 strikeouts. He went 1-for-4 with a double in Friday’s game, but he put four balls in play with at least a 90 mph exit velocity while elevating the ball in the air to the pull side.
He had his best swings since the beginning of May.
“My hitting coach texted me the night I punched out three times,” said Greene, who struck out three times in Thursday’s game. “He was like, ‘What do you got?’ I’m like, ‘I’m going to be honest, I have no clue what I’m doing.’ He goes, ‘Just start earlier, man. You’re late as can be.’ So, I started earlier yesterday.”
His hitting coach is Jered Goodwin, his former high school coach who trains him (and other MLB players) in the offseason and works as the vice president of scouting operations at Perfect Game.
The advice from Goodwin helped Greene realize his slump wasn’t related to his swing mechanics, rather the timing of his swing.
“Sometimes, it’s as simple as that,” Greene said. “When he told me that, I was like, ‘Why didn’t I figure that out a couple days ago, or a couple of weeks ago?’ He’s a good dude. He knows what he’s doing.”
Finally, Greene feels like himself again.
ROSTER MOVE: Tigers option reliever Alex Lange to Triple-A Toledo to work on throwing strikes
Greene, a streaky hitter so far in his career, is capable of single-handedly carrying the Tigers on offense, as exemplified by a 16-game stretch from April 17 through May 4, when he hit .339 with five home runs, 11 walks and 16 strikeouts in 16 games.
“He’s the type of hitter that none of us ever really worry about,” Hinch said. “We probably should pay a little bit more attention to the ups and downs that he goes through to try to support him more, but he’s so easy. He comes to the ballpark every day the same. He’s a swing or two away from greatness at all times.”
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Colt Keith’s walk-up song
Colt Keith, a rookie second baseman, likes the choice to wear the City Connect uniforms again, but he isn’t a superstitious player. He knows the jersey he wears doesn’t determine whether or not he performs well.
He hit the first home run of his MLB career in Friday’s game.
JACK IS BACK: It’s all coming together for Tigers’ Jack Flaherty thanks to unlocked slider
“I feel like I’ve been dreaming of that for a while,” Keith said. “It was kind of a blur when it happened. I don’t even know what pitch I hit. I just knew that I hit it good, and I was just happy to see it fly into the stands.”
Unlike Greene in the past, Keith has stuck with his walk-up song — “Rocketeer” by Far East Movement — throughout the ups and downs of his rookie season. The 22-year-old considered switching his walk-up song earlier in the year, but his fiancée, Kaitlyn Vickers, wouldn’t let him change it.
Sounds like the soon-to-be Mrs. Keith isn’t superstitious, either.
“She told me if I change it, she’s going to hit me,” Keith said, jokingly. “I thought about changing it a couple of times, and Kait said no. She said, ‘That’s the best walk-up song on the team, you got to keep it.’ Whatever she says.”
Spencer Torkelson on the bench
First baseman Spencer Torkelson, who continues to struggle at the plate, sat the bench for Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays. Instead of Torkelson, outfielder Mark Canha handled the duties at first base.
The 24-year-old is stuck in an 0-for-19 slump.
He is hitting .135 in his last 10 games.
Torkelson previously had hits in 12 of his 13 games from May 5 through May 19, but even then, he hit just .280 with two walks and 12 strikeouts during that stretch. For the entire season, Torkelson is hitting .207 with three home runs, 16 walks and 45 strikeouts in 49 games.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
Listen to our weekly Tigers show “Days of Roar” every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.
Detroit, MI
Detroit shines red for ALS kickoff & lighting ceremony
DETROIT, MICH (WXYZ) — In partnership with The ALS Association, downtown Detroit parks will shine red May 10–16 in recognition of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) Awareness month.
A special kickoff event will take place from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 10, in Campus Martius Park. The event will allow families impacted by ALS to connect, learn about upcoming initiatives, and take part in a meaningful “END ALS” photo moment under the illuminated park lights.
You can reserve you spot by visiting:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JlhGrOr9-kWQmmR_rZc61S9MfqDjPeBKvKV5YBqkMypUQThNMEs5TVpLRUY5R1FLV0o1WFExN1U4Uy4u
Detroit, MI
Detroit Tigers lose fifth straight, Kerry Carpenter injured
Detroit Tigers blow lead, lose to Kansas City Royals on walk-off hit.
The Tigers lost, 4-3, to the Royals on Kyle Isbel’s walk-off single in the ninth inning.
Kansas City, Mo. — The losing streak is now five games. The road record is now an MLB-worst 6-16.
The Kansas City Royals prolonged the Tigers’ misery Saturday night with a relatively breezy 5-1 win at Kauffman Stadium.
Oh, and the Tigers might’ve lost another player in the process.
Right fielder Kerry Carpenter left the game in the third inning. He banged his left shoulder running into the side wall chasing Bobby Witt Jr.’s first-inning, two-run, inside-the-park home run.
Witt, a right-handed hitter, sliced a drive inside the bag at first. Carpenter chased it toward the side wall, but the ball caromed past him. Witt never stopped running.
Carpenter stayed in the game and even rolled an infield single in the second inning. But he was replaced by Wenceel Perez when the Royals came to bat in the third inning.
BOX SCORE: Royals 5, Tigers 1
He was being evaluated during the game.
The two-run homer by Witt ended up being more than the Tigers’ sputtering offense could overcome. But, for good measure, Michael Massey added a three-run home run off Ty Madden in the fourth inning.
Madden ended up being one of the few bright spots in the game for the Tigers. He pitched six innings and allowed just one other hit. He set down the last 11 hitters he faced.
He entered in the third inning after opener Burch Smith and lefty Tyler Holton worked one time through the Royals’ batting order.
Holton made a nifty escape in the first inning. With runners at second and third and one out, and two runs already in, Jac Caglianone hit a hard ground ball to second baseman Zach McKinstry, who was playing in on the grass.
McKinstry got the out at first. The runner at second, Carter Jensen, mistakenly broke for third where Vinnie Pasquantino was holding.
Spencer Torkelson threw to shortstop Kevin McGonigle who threw to catcher Jake Rogers once Pasquantino broke for home — your basic 4-3-6-2 double-play.
Not much else went the Tigers’ way.
Royals right-hander Michael Wacha snuffed out the few scoring opportunities the Tigers mustered.
He worked around an error and a McKinstry stolen base in the third innings. He got Jake Rogers to pop to shallow right field with runners at first and third and one out and then got Matt Vierling to ground out with the bases loaded in the fifth.
Wacha allowed two hits in seven innings. The Tigers put 18 balls in play against him with a soft average exit velocity of 84.4 mph.
The Tigers broke through in the eighth against lefty reliever Matt Strahm. And it was left-handed hitters who did the dirty work. Riley Greene, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 20 games, doubled home McGonigle.
This season is a long way from over but Tigers, 18-22, are in serious need a course correction.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
Detroit, MI
Patchy dense fog turns to stronger thunderstorms for Metro Detroit to start the weekend
4Warn Weather – SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy skies. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. A few storms could be strong with gusty winds and hail. High: 71.
SATURDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy skies, becoming partly cloudy skies late. Low: 45.
SUNDAY (MOTHER’S DAY): Mix of sunshine and clouds, cooler temperatures. High: 61.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy skies. Another chilly night. Low: 41.
MONDAY: Mostly sunny skies, remaining chilly. High: 58.
After a beautiful end to the week on Friday with sunshine and a little cloud cover, with warmer temperatures moving into the region as well, some of us are waking up to some patchy dense fog on Saturday morning. Some places south of M-59 are seeing reduced visibilities down to around a mile. If you do run into some patchy dense fog, be sure to use your low beams.
That warming trend continues into the start of the weekend on Saturday, but it also brings a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Another cold front will work through the region by Saturday afternoon and early Saturday evening and that will bring our thunderstorm chance. High temperature is warming into low 70s by Saturday afternoon.
The Storm Prediction Center has placed most of the region under a Marginal Risk (1 out of 5) on our severe weather scale for the start of the weekend. Gusty winds and hail are the primary threats as we work through the start of the weekend, but this will not be a widespread threat for severe thunderstorms.
Behind that cold front for the end of the weekend on Sunday, we will keep a mixture of sunshine and clouds into the forecast. High temperatures running about 10 to 15° cooler to end the weekend. Expect high to warm into the upper 50s to lower 60s by Sunday afternoon.
Drier weather sticks around for the start of next week, before another chance of rain moves into the region by the time we get to Tuesday. The cooler-than-average temperatures will continue into the start of next week as well. Expect high temperatures to remain in the 50s for Monday and Tuesday.
Temperature start to warm up by the middle of next week, and Drier weather moves back in by Wednesday behind another cold front moving into the region. Expect high temperatures into the lower 60s on Wednesday to warm into the upper 60s by the time we get to Thursday. Above average temperatures move back into the region as we look ahead into the end of the week, expect high temperatures back into the lower 70s by the time we get to Friday.
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