DETROIT -- Toro Time is back.

One day after he was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma, infielder Abraham Toro was again the artist of some late-inning heroics. This time, the canvas was cavernous Comerica Park, which had no chance to hold a 403-foot, go-ahead blast that he sent halfway up the right-field bleachers in the seventh inning, which sent Seattle on its way to a 5-3 victory over the Tigers.

The win clinched the series and lifted the Mariners to 14 games above .500, a season high. And it was perhaps fitting that it was Toro who again delivered a decisive blow late -- as he had earlier this year in Baltimore, Houston and against Oakland at home -- to back the Mariners, who are now on pace to match their 90-win season from last year.

“He gets his swings in,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Late in the game, a lot of guys are looking for the perfect pitch or whatever. You’re not really going to get that late in the game. But he goes up there in an aggressive mode.”

On the first pitch of the fateful at-bat, the switch-hitting Toro crushed a hanging curveball from Tigers reliever Alex Lange just after Adam Frazier had dropped a one-out triple into the deepest part of the park in right-center. With a simplified approach, focusing on lining something deep enough for a sacrifice, Toro was more at ease for the high-stakes moment. 

It was eerily familiar to his other late-innings heroics this season -- and perhaps far more unexpected, given that had it not been for Dylan Moore landing on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain on Monday, Toro wouldn’t have a roster spot. Of Toro’s nine homers this year, seven have come in the seventh inning or later. For his career, 15 of his 25 have been that late.

"I just like those moments, just those tight situations,” Toro said. “You just want to drive that run in, simplify your approach, and I think I just like delivering for the team."

At Tacoma, Toro focused on simplifying his leg kick, which he said helped him see the ball better and lay off bad pitches. 

“When I was here earlier, I was trying to be early,” Toro said. “But my hands never followed, so it was all about trying to sync it up, clean it up, and that’s what I did in Tacoma.”

Over his first stint in the Majors before being optioned on Aug. 6, Toro regularly flashed his plus bat-to-ball skills, but more often, he was fouling pitches off or rolling them over. That led to a .180/.239/.322 (.560 OPS) slash line in 84 games, a large enough sample of playing time to show how much the front office values him, but just as much, how pronounced his struggles became. 

“He’s gotten a lot of big hits,” Servais said. “Everybody looks at his batting average and the inconsistencies, but the home runs or the big hits late in games has won us quite a few games that he’s been out there and able to produce for us. So, good for him.”

Moore’s recovery will likely be weeks, which could open the door for Toro to be a regular bench contributor, at least among infielders. Taylor Trammell is expected to be activated when rosters expand Thursday, which would give the Mariners more outfield depth to account for Moore’s versatility there. 

After how illuminated his struggles were earlier, not many Mariners fans might’ve had Toro hitting a go-ahead homer this late in the season on their bingo card, but that’s the beauty of pennant chases -- you never know what you’re going to get in an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Marco needs a new jersey
Toro’s heroics helped back Marco Gonzales on a night where the lefty felt so off his game early that after a two-run second inning, he went into the visiting clubhouse and changed jerseys.

"I didn't feel like myself,” Gonzales said. “I felt weirdly, like, kind of shaky, just a little off. And I came and changed my jersey.”

Gonzales had just surrendered two runs that tied the game, highlighted by a hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch and the Tigers ambushing his changeup. But he came back to finish six innings, surrendering an additional run and getting out of a few extra jams with some plus defense behind him.

“I felt like I just wasn't trusting my stuff,” Gonzales said. “I felt like I was aiming the ball a little bit and not letting it go. And after that, through the third and until the end of [my outing], I just thought, ‘OK, if I'm going to get through this game, I just need to really go and stop trying to figure it out. Just pitch.’”