DETROIT -- Riley Greene rarely takes batting practice on the field anymore, preferring to take his swings in the cage. On Friday afternoon, however, he joined a couple teammates in early BP in an otherwise quiet Comerica Park.
“The great outdoors were incredible,” Greene said afterwards. “I just wanted to have some fun.”
It wasn’t a slump-busting measure to try to get out of a 1-for-21 August, but he wanted to see the ball fly. He joked that it was good to know that he can still hit a baseball, a sign that his sense of humor is still intact.
And as he reminded a packed crowd at Comerica Park on Friday night, his defense never slumps, even when the catches physically hurt.
"It's a stretch that I'm going to get out of,” Greene said. “It sucks in the moment, but it's the game of baseball. It happens and I'm trying to find a way to help the team win on the defensive side of the ball, trying to play my butt off in the outfield, making sure I stay focused in the outfield and not let my at-bats carry on over. Try to be a good teammate."
Did he ever.
Though Matt Vierling became the hero of Friday’s 6-5 comeback win over the Angels with his go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning, Greene’s defense helped keep the Tigers within rallying range. His all-out stretch on Zach Neto’s seventh-inning line drive towards the left-field corner denied a likely RBI double and an add-on run. An inning later, Greene’s sliding catch in shallow left on Mike Trout’s blooper didn’t have the same degree of difficulty, but it kept a runner off base when Jo Adell homered two batters later.
Those were two runs prevented in what ended up being a one-run victory.
“It was sick, both of them,” said reliever Troy Melton, whose 3 1/3 innings of one-run ball put him in line for his second win in four big league outings. “The diving play obviously was crazy. Keeping guys off base, that helps me out a lot. And then the sliding catch, too, was awesome. He’s great out there, so it’s really fun pitching in front of him.”
Greene also had an impact at the plate. His second-inning single off Angels starter Kyle Hendricks set up a two-run blooper for Javier Báez three batters later. His fourth-inning single earned him his first multi-hit game since July 30; he had just one hit with nine strikeouts through his first five games in August.
“I feel like I'm not seeing the ball,” Greene said before the game. “I'm not focusing on the ball, focusing on different things, thinking about different things. I've gotta simplify and I've gotta stick to my strengths and not go to other people's strengths, stick to mine, hunt my zones and do some damage.”
Greene batted sixth in the order Friday, his lowest spot in the lineup since he hit sixth in his MLB debut on June 18, 2022. Part of that position, manager A.J. Hinch explained before the game, was strategic to break up Detroit’s left-handed hitters against an Angels bullpen that features three lefty relievers.
“We are a different offense when he’s a part of it,” Hinch said. “He doesn’t need to carry this offense. We need to do a lot of things better as a collective group. But every hitter needs a little bit of love in the box score to feel better about what they’re doing. And he’s one good pitch away from feeling great.”
Greene was aggressive on both of his hits, hitting a second-pitch changeup from Hendricks for his second-inning single and a first-pitch changeup in the fourth. He might have still been feeling the impact from his diving catch when he grounded out to begin the seventh, but he battled former teammate Andrew Chafin for 10 pitches before striking out in the eighth.