WASHINGTON — Detroit Tigers second baseman Colt Keith hit an opposite field double and opposite field single … in the first inning as the Tigers batted around in racking up six runs on their way to a 11-2 win over the Washington Nationals in the first game of a split doubleheader on Wednesday, July 2.
Yet Keith wasn’t the story at Nationals Park.
Nor was Zach McKinstry, the Tigers’ third baseman who had four hits in five at-bats and scored two runs.
Nor was shortstop Trey Sweeney, who returned to the big leagues after two days in the minors and ripped a single during his first at-bat. Nor was catcher Jake Rogers, who sent his first homer of 2025 just over the wall in right-center, a three-run blast that made it 6-0 in the first. Nor was first baseman Spencer Torkelson, who yanked a 396-foot home run over the left-field bullpen in the sixth inning.
It was Torkelson’s 18th homer of the year and his second in the last week, which had to feel good as the first baseman had cooled off a bit recently.
These were nice moments for all four — especially for Keith, as it’s not every day a player gets two hits in the same inning. Then again, it’s not every day a player belts two three-run home runs in the same game.
Yet should anyone be surprised that Riley Greene did that?
Of course not.
Not only was it Greene’s fourth multi-homer game of the season for the Tigers (54-32), and not only was it his 20th and 21st home runs of the season, but the way Greene is seeing the ball, hitting the ball and placing the ball is rare for even the most accomplished hitters in the game.
That’s six RBIs in July, following 23 in June and 24 — his high for a month — in May. And while RBIs aren’t the choiciest of stats anymore — they speak to opportunity as much as result — Greene’s numbers here help provide a little context.
And that is this: He is the first Tiger in 12 years to have more than 20 RBIs in consecutive months. The last? Miguel Cabrera.
You no doubt guessed, right? Not that Greene is Cabrera. Lately, though, he is hitting like Cabrera.
The 36 hits in June. The 15 extra-base hits. The .630 slugging percentage. The 1.034 OPS. The first home run he blasted Wednesday, off a full count, on a sweeper that stayed low in the strike zone.
Greene dipped down to grab it, almost corkscrewing his knee into the ground, lofting it into the second deck of right field. The last-second adjustment was certainly Cabrera-like.
He hit his second homer even further, off an 85-mph splitter with a 2-2 count, almost straightaway to center. Tigers fans at the stadium began chanting “M-V-P … M-V-P!”
He is no doubt playing like one, by number and by sight.
Oh, that bullpen
A.J. Hinch joked before the game that he might use every reliever available for the doubleheader once Sawyer Gipson-Long was scratched due to neck stiffness. In the first game, he only used four.
That six-run first inning helped.
“It (was) big because we knew we were going to have to use pitching,” Hinch said. “Obviously, (the relievers) got a longer leash when you have runs like that.”
Left-hander Tyler Holton started the game and pitched two scoreless innings. Fellow lefty Brant Hurter followed with two more scoreless innings.
Hurter might have pitched three scoreless innings if not for a throwing error by Keith with two outs in the fifth. But when James Wood reached second after the error — he’d singled — Hinch pulled Hurter, for Tyler Owens.
Still, the outing was promising for Hurter, who was critical to last season’s playoff push yet hasn’t quite found his groove this season.
“I have a ton of confidence in him,” said Hinch. “And I know he — he knows he can — get outs. … For Hurter, strikes are key for him. He’s a tough angle. You saw them have really tough at-bats. Given that we didn’t have the bulk guy sort of scripted, it’s a huge outing to contribute to a win.”
Owens was activated from the “taxi squad” for Gipson-Long and pitched for just the third time for the Tigers this season. The right-hander gave up a single and then got Nathaniel Lowe to groundout to third base.
He came back for the sixth but couldn’t quite finish after giving up three walks and a single. Dylan Smith came in for the final out.
Smith pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth inning, working his way out of trouble in the seventh. Then finished with a scoreless ninth for his first career save.
Schedule update
The Tigers found out Wednesday that they’ll have their third nationally televised game in a little over three weeks later this month, as ESPN announced it was flexing their July 20 game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, into its “Sunday Night Baseball” slot. The game, on the first weekend after the All-Star break, was originally scheduled for 2:45 p.m.
The Tigers opened their run of prime-time exposure on Sunday, June 29, with a “Sunday Night Baseball” appearance — the first at Comerica Park since 2017 — against the Minnesota Twins, with left-hander Tarik Skubal tossing seven scoreless innings with one hit allowed and 13 strikeouts. They’ll have a network date on Saturday, July 5, as they visit the Cleveland Guardians at 7:15 p.m. on Fox (complete with Tigers play-by-play man Jason Benetti in that role with the network), and then wrap up their series with the Rangers under the lights (and, presumably, under the roof) at Globe Life Field.