How Greene's teammates changed his game

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

NEW YORK -- Major League hitters have no shortage of places they can go for advice when they’re trying to get themselves right, from a cast of big league coaches to private instructors to swing coaches. But sometimes the most resourceful route for help for players is each other.

Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter came up through the Tigers' farm system together. They know each other almost as well as they know their families. They also know their swings.

So when Greene was struggling to figure out why his swing seemed off to start the season -- he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts on Opening Day against the White Sox, then had a walk and a pair of groundouts to the right side to begin Saturday’s game -- he looked at video of his swing on an iPad in the dugout. As he did, Torkelson and Carpenter looked over his shoulder. Carpenter had a suggestion.

So Greene looked at video of his swing on an iPad in the dugout. As he did, Torkelson and Carpenter looked over his shoulder. Carpenter had a suggestion.

“Tork and Carp came up to me and said, ‘Hey, just start [your swing] a little earlier,’” Greene said.

It worked. Greene homered his next time up, sending a 396-foot drive out to left-center off Dominic Leone at 104.5 mph. His lineout two innings later against John Brebbia was hit even harder, 105.3 mph, and had a higher chance at a hit, but it was caught near the warning track in right-center.

Greene couldn’t believe he didn’t think of it.

It wasn’t any big observation, Carpenter said a few days later, but simply taking some of his own experiences and relating to what Greene was dealing with. When he saw Greene hitting a middle-middle fastball on the ground, he had an idea.

“It’s weird to say that you’re late on a rollover pull side, but that’s kind of what happens,” Carpenter said. “I’m just late. He was late. And then he started earlier. It’s weird how that happens. You’re late and you pull ground balls, and you’re early and you hit backside homers. It’s just how it goes.”

How often does that happen?

“All the time,” said Greene, who homered again on Thursday at Citi Field in Game 1 of their doubleheader split against the Mets. “Great teammates. I mean, I’m sitting there watching the video, and I’ve got Carp and Tork watching it with me. And it’s the same thing, I’m watching theirs. We want what’s best for each other.

“The hitting coaches, they’re the best of the best, but sometimes they miss things and sometimes you pick them up.”

While they all know each other’s swings, Carpenter said sometimes it’s more reading the result than the swing itself. It’s also sometimes going to the fundamentals of a swing, something he said he has improved on reading his own swing over the last couple years. Every pitch, Carpenter said, is a learning experience.

“We have different swings,” Carpenter said, “but I firmly believe that there are certain things that are universal for everybody, being on time being one of them. Colt [Keith] did the same thing the other day. Whenever I feel a little off, I do the same thing. I just gave him what happens when I do that.”