Greene's LL grand slam sparks Tigers in late loss 

DETROIT -- Riley Greene’s dash around the bases Tuesday night looked like a path to victory. A classic Comerica Park triple turned into a Little League grand slam, and the Tigers' struggle for offense turned into an instant lead.

It felt like a game-changer, especially given the Nationals' mistakes that set it up. The inability to translate it into victory left a sense of frustration after Washington turned two late unearned runs on sacrifice flies into a 5-4 Detroit defeat in 10 innings.

“It’s a tough loss,” Jake Rogers said. “Greenie came up big for us there to get us back in it.”

It’s the kind of game the Tigers finished out early in the season but have struggled with recently. And as Greene collected his thoughts, he had his mind more on a 10th-inning strikeout against Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan with the potential tying run on second than his trip around the bases in the fifth with a three-run deficit.

“Every loss is difficult in my eyes,” Greene said. “We had an opportunity. I had an opportunity. I got a middle-middle heater and just took it. Can’t happen. But we fought hard until the end. That’s all that matters. We’ll wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.”

A game marked by two errors on each side and seven walks between starters Kenta Maeda and Mitchell Parker featured just two run-scoring hits. CJ Abrams tripled home Joey Gallo and scored on a Lane Thomas sacrifice fly, the first of the Nationals' three sac flies on the night, for a 3-0 lead in the top of the fifth. Washington had chased Maeda after four volatile innings and put up two fifth-inning runs on Beau Brieske. Detroit had struggled to build anything against Parker.

But just when the Nationals seemed to take over the game, the Tigers found their opening against Parker, who had overcome a four-pitch walk to Ryan Kreidler to get what should’ve been an inning-ending grounder from Andy Ibáñez.

The ball had an exit velocity of just 34.5 miles per hour. Parker, however, juggled it, allowing Ibáñez to reach base.

“I tried to make the throw before I even fielded it,” Parker said.

Once Mark Canha took a 3-2 pitch inside to load the bases, up came Greene with the tying run on base.

“We took advantage of a mistake or two, which is nice,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We needed to do that. Nothing had really happened … until they gave us a couple extra swings.”

Greene got an extra swing when his foul ball on Parker’s 1-1 pitch fell just out of reach of left fielder Jesse Winker. With a chance to strand the bases loaded, Parker challenged Greene with a fastball over the plate. Greene crushed it.

As a rookie in 2022, Greene hit four balls 400-plus feet that did not go for home runs. Two were outs, including a 422-foot fly ball to center that became Exhibit A when the Tigers moved the outfield fences in the ensuing winter. One of the impacted areas was in right-center, where the towering wall that housed the out-of-town scoreboard was rendered out of play by a new seven-foot fence in front of it.

Greene hadn’t had a 400-foot drive not go for a home run since. Still, he knows enough to take off running on balls from gap to gap.

“I thought I got it, to be honest,” Greene said. “Just trying to come somewhat hard out of the box and see what happens with it.”

The 409-foot drive hit the base of the reconfigured fence in right-center. It would have been a home run in 26 Major League parks, according to Statcast, with Comerica Park joining Coors Field, Tropicana Field and Chase Field as the exceptions. While the bases cleared, Greene sped around second. As he slid into third, the relay throw bounced behind him and skipped to the dugout fence.

“I slid into third and thought that was it, and then I saw [third-base coach] Joey [Cora waving],” Greene said. “I didn’t see where the ball was. I just trusted Joey. He was saying, 'Go, go, go,' so I went.”

The Tigers’ 4-3 lead held until errors from Greene and Kreidler set up an Ildemargo Vargas sac fly to tie it in the eighth. Thomas’ 10th-inning sac fly after an Andrew Chafin wild pitch put the Nationals in front. Finnegan held the would-be tying run in the bottom half with strikeouts of Greene and Gio Urshela.