Hours after tweak in plate approach, Greene has 4-hit, 6-RBI game

HOUSTON -- Riley Greene went opposite field on a curveball and sent it into the Crawford Boxes in Minute Maid Park’s cozy left field, then crushed a Spencer Arrighetti changeup midway up the right-field seats an inning later, a Statcast-projected 409-foot drive. A pair of solid line-drive singles later -- one on an 0-2 curveball after three foul balls, the other going oppo again on a 1-0 fastball -- earned him his first career four-hit game.

Yet on a day when the Tigers churned out 19 hits in a 13-5 win over the Astros, Greene’s favorite was the one in which he didn’t swing at all.

“Bases loaded,” Greene recalled of his eighth-inning meeting with former Astros closer and veteran setup man Rafael Montero. “I really had to stick to my approach, and not do too much. I drew a walk, and spit on some good changeups. That just made me feel good about my approach.”

His manager felt the same way.

“The most mature at-bat that he had,” A.J. Hinch said of Greene’s career-high sixth RBI. “Bases loaded, he’s got a guy whose pitch count’s getting driven up, he doesn’t expand and just put the ball in play. He draws a walk. It looks sort of uneventful given the way the day went, especially for him, but it’s one step forward.”

This is Greene settling into the role as the clear-cut focal point of the Tigers offense. With Kerry Carpenter injured (lumbar spine stress fracture) and Spencer Torkelson at Triple-A Toledo, Greene has been a target for opponents as they map out plans through Detroit’s lineup.

Greene entered Saturday on a five-game hitting streak, batting 7-for-22 (.318 average) with four extra-base hits and six RBIs, but it had been a grind. Greene was one of many frustrated Tigers after Friday’s 4-0 loss, not just for the catch that Jake Meyers made at the center-field wall on his Statcast-projected 415-foot drive in the ninth inning. The Tigers have been stop-and-go on momentum, and Friday’s loss behind Tarik Skubal was tough.

But during that game, Greene said Saturday, he made a tweak in his approach that seemed to click.

“I figured out a few things in the game last night, during the game,” Greene said. “I made some adjustments, and I talked to [hitting coach] Michael [Brdar] about it [Saturday] and he was like, ‘I love it.’ Just really trying to make those small adjustments until something clicks. Sometimes, it clicks, and sometimes, it doesn’t.

“It’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s just small adjustments every day.”

Though Greene hit secondary pitches from Arrighetti -- moved up a day as a late replacement for injured Justin Verlander -- for both home runs, including his first off a changeup since last August, he insisted the approach of staying on fastballs didn’t change.

Greene was able to adjust to everything else, reaching base safely five times against four Astros pitchers. He saw 23 pitches across six plate appearances, and didn’t swing and miss once. He became the first Tiger to drive in six runs in a game since Eric Haase on July 3, 2021.

In many ways, this was a get-good game for a Tigers offense that has run hot and cold for the last month or so after a slow start. But with 14 home runs, 14 doubles and an .836 OPS through 69 games, Greene's learning to handle the wayward route to success.

“I felt good today, and I’m comfortable with my approach,” Greene said. “There’s days when I’ll search, and there’s days when I’ll feel good. It’s the game of baseball. It’s a roller coaster. You’ve just got to ride it.”

Asked how he would describe arguably a career-best game, Greene said succinctly, “Good. In my opinion, it’s just one day. You can’t sprint a marathon.”

Still, for many Tigers, Saturday marked some enjoyable steps. The Tigers scored double-digit runs within the first three innings for the first time since June 2, 2017, when Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and John Hicks roughed up Derek Holland.

Greene and Matt Vierling combined for the Tigers’ first back-to-back homers since Akil Baddoo and Parker Meadows last Sept. 26, and the first in an opening inning since Greene and Javier Báez homered off then-Met Verlander on May 4 of last season.

Colt Keith fell a triple shy of a cycle in his second four-hit game, while Baddoo and Zach McKinstry both drew back-to-back walks twice in the second inning, something no one Tiger had done since Austin Jackson on Aug. 23, 2010.