Greene goes deep early; Flaherty takes it from there

ARLINGTON -- It might be time to add the word “perennial” in front of “All-Star” when referring to Tigers left fielder Riley Greene, and it’s easy to see why with performances like he had in Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Rangers.

A few hours before learning that he will be going to his third consecutive Midsummer Classic, Greene got the Tigers going at Globe Life Field, scorching a game-breaking two-run homer in the first inning to give Detroit a lead it never let get away.

“I feel like once you make one [All-Star Game], you want to make all of them,” Greene said. “This is something, as a baseball player, someone who competes, you want to be in all of them. It’s awesome.”

Greene has eight homers since June 1 and has gone deep three times in his past four games.

“Just being on time, getting good pitches to hit and finding barrels,” Greene said.

On Saturday, Greene ripped a fly ball a Statcast-projected 386 feet down the right-field line at 107.7 mph, driving in Kerry Carpenter, who had singled. Those were all the runs starter Jack Flaherty needed to take care of business.

Flaherty was as sharp as he’s been all season, allowing three earned runs or fewer for the 13th time in the past 17 starts. He hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his past seven outings. Flaherty’s velocity ticked up on all his pitches, especially his secondary stuff, as he struck out five hitters, walked none and scattered three hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

“We're doing those small things a lot better, in terms of commanding the zone,” Flaherty said of his recent success. “There were a lot of walks early on [in the season]. ... Just being able to mix pitches and getting ahead of guys, trying to get some quicker outs and make them put the ball in play, because our defense has played really well.”

Flaherty allowed a few hard-hit balls -- including Josh Smith’s 101.1 mph liner to right-center that center fielder James Outman managed to sprint down. Smith’s first-inning flyout would’ve been a homer in four MLB parks, per Statcast, with an expected batting average of .590, but Outman hurried to the deepest corner of the park to make a running catch.

“[Outman] played great,” Hinch said. “And one of the reasons he's been a mainstay in the lineup since he's gotten here is because he brings defense and speed every day, and his pre-pitch is great ... his angles are really good, and he completes plays. So when you do that, you get to stay in the lineup.”

Flaherty departed after Josh Jung’s two-out double in the sixth. He has averaged an elite-level 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings over his past seven outings.