The kids are all right: Sweeney hits unique 1st big league HR

CHICAGO -- With many family and friends in attendance on Wednesday, Tigers rookie Trey Sweeney accomplished every baseball player’s dream: hitting his first home run in the Major Leagues.

But Sweeney (Detroit's No. 20 prospect) had to wait a bit longer than he perhaps ever could have expected to know for sure that he did it.

“It was a relief when I saw [the umpire crew] do the home-run signal,” Sweeney said of his two-run blast to straightaway center field in the second inning of the Tigers’ 8-2 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

After a leadoff walk by Jace Jung (Detroit's No. 5 prospect) and Zach McKinstry’s popout, Sweeney stepped up and crushed a deep fly ball that pushed Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong toward the ivy-covered brick wall. Crow-Armstrong leaped, but the Statcast-projected 414-foot drive had cleared the basket atop the wall before the ball then ricocheted back onto the field.

Sweeney had settled into a trot when Crow-Armstrong began to rush to corral the ball as it trickled along the warning track. The umpire crew had not given a home-run signal, so Sweeney picked up the pace and cruised into third base. Amid the confusion, the crew conferred and ruled it a home run.

“I was definitely a little hyped up running home, looking at the fans in the stands,” Sweeney said. “A cool scene in the dugout, too, getting to celebrate with the team.”

Those fans included Sweeney’s parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, brother, some of his college friends and some high school friends. The 24-year-old is from Louisville, Ky., and he attended college at Eastern Illinois University.

The unique first homer at least made it easy for Sweeney to acquire the baseball afterward.

“Everybody on our team thinks every stadium should have a basket,” manager A.J. Hinch quipped.

The final month-plus of the 2024 season is a chance for the Tigers to evaluate their young position players who are getting opportunities down the stretch. Jung (third base) and Sweeney (shortstop) made up the left side of the Tigers’ infield on Wednesday. Detroit selected each of their contracts from Triple-A Toledo on Friday.

Center fielder Parker Meadows, who hit leadoff for the fourth time in Detroit’s past five games, went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and a single. He hit a two-out double in the second and scored when Riley Greene crushed a Statcast-projected 112 mph, 422-foot homer to right-center field.

The Tigers’ evaluation goes beyond just the box score, but of course, it also doesn’t hurt to see results.

“We want to see consistent performance. And that doesn't always mean 2-for-4 every game, or it doesn't mean box scores,” Hinch said. “It means baseball aptitude. It means baseball awareness. They're learning how to play and learning how to make winning plays.

“... I think the biggest thing in watching young players is watching how they respond to both success and failure. It's also seeing the adjustments that they make on their own and seeing how they make adjustments that are suggested through our staff.”

Meadows knows something about adjustments. He had a .443 OPS in 32 games when he was optioned to Toledo on May 7. He worked on simplifying his approach while in Triple-A.

“I’m just trying to keep it simple,” Meadows said. “I felt like I was getting a little too big and kind of uppercutting on everything. I worked on my path a little bit in the hands. I’m feeling good.”

Meadows was recalled from Toledo on July 5, but he went on the 10-day IL (right hamstring strain) on July 8. Since his activation on Aug. 3, the 24-year-old is hitting .352 (19-for-54) with a .949 OPS.

“He’s just been in complete control of his at-bats,” Hinch said of Meadows’ getting a look in the leadoff spot. “He's a difference maker on the bases. We flirted with that early in the year and we want to continue to think about how to configure the lineup in different ways. But when he's getting on base and controlling his at-bats and running the bases aggressively, he's perfect for the top of the order.”

Along with Meadows and Greene’s production, Kerry Carpenter crushed a three-run homer in the ninth to break the game open. The optimism surrounding what the Tigers are building is evident on nights like Wednesday.

“It’s cool because we played together in [Double-A] Erie, in Toledo, a bunch of different places,” Carpenter said. “It’s cool that we’re finally up here and we’re doing well and learning and getting better and preparing for the future. … It’s just preparing us for whatever’s going to come.”