KANSAS CITY -- The Tigers were lined up in the visiting dugout at Kauffman Stadium during what would’ve been their usual time for batting practice to watch the Royals’ annual Big Slick celebrity softball game, featuring home runs galore along with actors and Royals fans Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Rob Riggle, Eric Stonestreet, David Koechner and Heidi Gardner.
“I was just checking it out like, ‘What’s going on? Why is our early work at 2 o’clock,’” Spencer Torkelson said half-jokingly before asking if all the celebrities were from Kansas City.
Once the Tigers had their turn at the plate, they teed off like the softball game was still going and the fences were still short. The way the ball was flying in Friday’s 7-5 win, no fences were holding them back.
Riley Greene, who had been 0-for-10 off Royals starter Seth Lugo, hit the first pitch he saw midway up the right-field seats, a 429-foot drive for a two-run homer in the opening inning. Dillon Dingler nearly hit a teammate with his drive to the back wall of the visiting bullpen in left field for another two-run homer in the second. Torkelson, after producing a clutch two-out RBI single in the fifth, spoiled Andrew Hoffman’s MLB debut by sending a kick-change 436 feet into the fountains in left-center in the eighth.
After sweeping the Giants despite one home run over a three-game set, the Tigers hit as many homers Friday as they had in their previous eight games combined. They needed all the offense they could find on a night when the Royals pounded Casey Mize for eight hits in a season-low 3 1/3 innings.
In the process, the Tigers provided a reminder of the different paths to victory they can forge. They’re on their third five-game winning streak of the season, this one coming on the heels of losing three straight to the Guardians last week at Comerica Park. If Tarik Skubal can build on the momentum of last Sunday’s gem to start this streak, and beat a Royals team that has handed him nine of his 33 defeats in his MLB career, the Tigers will have a season-high six-game winning streak, tying their longest from last year.
Their last two wins have been games that might have challenged them in years past, from Wednesday’s four-run rally to Friday’s relative slugfest. Both hinged on clutch hitting, and both hinged on Detroit’s bullpen picking up a struggling starter.
“I think it just goes to show that we’re doing little things right,” said Torkelson, now 11-for-32 with 17 RBIs with runners in scoring position and two outs this season. “Our pitchers are executing in big situations. We’re making the plays behind them when we need to.”
But it’s more than a strategy. This team has a mentality.
“I feel like we expect to win,” Torkelson continued. “A couple years ago, it’s like, ‘How are we going to lose this one?’ But this year it’s like, ‘How are we gonna win it?’ There’s so many opportunities and so many guys that can win this game for us, so it’s just trusting in that.”
The Tigers entered the game wanting to make Lugo work, knowing he was making his first start in 19 days after coming back from the injured list without a rehab assignment. But both Greene and Dingler homered off the first pitch they saw from him -- cutter for Greene, fastball for Dingler.
"We were trying to set ourselves up for the rest of the series,” Dingler said, “because we knew they'd have to use the 'pen. We knew that he probably wasn't going to go 80, 90, 100 [pitches] that he usually does. We were able to get a few of their relievers in there, and that was a win for us."
By contrast, both of Torkelson’s hits came on full counts that he extended by fouling off pitches. His single came on a sinker at the bottom of the zone that he lined into left field. The ball hung up long enough for Royals left fielder Drew Waters to weigh a diving attempt, but he ultimately had to play it on the bounce.
Three innings later, Torkelson fouled off Hoffman’s 95 mph fastball and 88 mph kick-change before making Hoffman pay for going back to the latter.
“Just choke and poke, just get the barrel to the ball,,” Torkelson said of his team-best 14th home run and 42nd RBI of the season. “I felt like my two-strike approach was lacking a little bit, so I just wanted to shorten up and get the fastball a little deeper, and he just hung that changeup.”