PITTSBURGH -- The future of the Tigers' lineup isn’t far off. Maybe not so much on the map, where Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene crushed home runs for Triple-A Toledo on the road in Iowa, a long way from PNC Park.

But the more the Tigers’ top two prospects slug for the Mud Hens, the easier it becomes to envision them hitting for Detroit at some point next season -- probably not on Opening Day, but maybe sooner than later. Games like Tuesday’s 3-2 Tigers loss to the Pirates make it evident where they could eventually help.

• Box score

“I mean, there’s no secret that the first baseman of the future is going to be Spencer Torkelson. He’s in Triple-A, hitting a homer about every other day and he’s opening eyes,” manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday morning on MLB Network Radio. “Eyes were quite honestly already open to him. But I don’t know when his arrival is going to be. The organization will be very smart about his development.”

• Hinch anoints Torkelson as Tigers' future 1B

The trouble for Detroit this series has been the struggle to develop big innings. The Tigers have scored in two of 18 innings through two losses against the Pirates. On Tuesday, six leadoff baserunners against Pittsburgh starter Dillon Peters and a procession of relievers yielded a lone scoring rally. Willi Castro’s leadoff walk in the third inning set up Derek Hill’s RBI triple. Hill scored on Robbie Grossman’s one-out single, giving the Tigers a lead that held until Ben Gamel’s go-ahead two-run single in the sixth off Alex Lange.

The Tigers left the bases loaded after their two runs in the third inning, and missed more chances as the game went on. The Tigers have been skilled recently at turning aggressive baserunning into offense, but the combination of traffic on base and the Pirates’ attention to Detroit’s running game left the Tigers going base to base more often than usual.

Teams have rough stretches over the course of a season, but the abrupt transition from finding different ways to beat the Reds to struggling to pull away from the Pirates is arguably a sign of the inconsistency of a young team. The frustration over it is the sign of expectations that have been raised by the Tigers’ competitiveness since May.

“The bottom line is you’re not going to win against teams if you put as many baserunners on as we did and the lack of timely hitting,” Hinch said. “We didn’t do anything to create our own energy and it cost us at the end. It was a winnable game, but we were also fortunate that we were even that close.”

The Tigers went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. They kept the game close by holding the Pirates to 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. One of those hits was actually an out at the plate, with Jonathan Schoop picking himself off the ground after a sliding attempt on a Kevin Newman infield single, then firing home to retire Colin Moran trying to score from second.

Meanwhile, for Toledo

Halfway across the country, Torkelson -- MLB Pipeline’s No. 4 overall prospect -- hit his 26th home run of his first season of pro ball, across three levels of the Tigers' farm system. That puts him in the top 20 of all Minor League hitters this year. His fifth homer in his last seven games for the Mud Hens was a loud drive to right-center off a lefty, putting Toledo in front in the third inning.

• Spencer Torkelson video highlights

Two innings later, Greene -- ranked seventh on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 -- homered to nearly the same spot, a two-run shot for his 21st homer of the year and his third homer in his last two games for the Hens.

They’re not the complete answers to the next step of the Tigers’ rebuild. Detroit is still expected to need help from outside the organization, either through free agency or trades. But if and when Torkelson takes over at first, Schoop can get more playing time at second, where Willi Castro’s ups and downs have created instability up the middle.

What has already become a deep outfield mix would be competing for two spots with Greene’s arrival. Grossman has one corner solidified, having signed a two-year contract last offseason. Hill’s all-around play has given the Tigers a glimpse of what he could mean to this team going forward. Akil Baddoo has arguably been the story of the season, but he has been starting a little less often against lefties recently, including Tuesday. Add in Victor Reyes and Daz Cameron, and there’s a puzzle to eventually piece together.

Days like Tuesday, on both sides, create the anticipation of what the final product will look like.