Tork torches another one as 1st career walk-off HR seals series win vs. Crew

DETROIT -- The Tigers have watched Spencer Torkelson follow a 31-homer season with a slow start at the plate in two of the past three seasons. They’ve also enjoyed the flip side.

“He brings a different element,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, we can slug. Obviously, we can be streaky, too. And slug does do that.”

As Torkelson turned on Abner Uribe’s 3-1 fastball at 99.2 mph and sent it deep to left at a Statcast-projected 109.8 mph for a walk-off homer on Thursday afternoon, he not only had his second home run in less than 24 hours, but he powered the Tigers to a 5-4 win and a series victory over a Brewers team that had pestered them for three games with speed, contact and persistence at Comerica Park.

When Torkelson posted his first 31-homer season in 2023, he didn’t hit his first home run the following season until the Tigers’ 40th game, and his 147th at-bat of ‘24. But he also homered the following day, and a week after that, and a week after that. His overall hitting struggles that summer landed him at Triple-A Toledo, but he returned that August to bat .309 with four homers in his first 15 games back with Detroit.

The last two games marked Torkelson’s 13th set of consecutive contests with homers in his career, including Nos. 30 and 31 of 2025 last Sept. 19-20. He homered three times in five games last September after previously going 18 games and 64 at-bats without homers.

“It feels really good when you connect,” Hinch said. “It obviously can be challenging when the other side takes away from it, but it brings a whole new element. And this is a guy who has moved down in the order a little bit with [catcher Dillon Dingler], with Kevin [McGonigle] coming on this team. It just lengthens our lineup and provides a huge threat of homers at the bottom.”

For Torkelson, it’s more timing than streakiness, being ready for a fastball that he can hit. He had been pounding fastballs for hard contact for much of this opening month without much to show for it until he posted his two hardest hits of the season on Wednesday. But Uribe hadn’t given up a home run since the Nationals’ Brady House got him on July 12, 2025.

Uribe looked intent on not giving Torkelson a chance to sit on a fastball. After spotting a 100 mph sinker at the top of the zone for a called first strike, he threw three consecutive sliders, none particularly close.

“Just looking for something out over [the plate] that I can handle,” Torkelson said. “Got a really good one to hit [on the] first pitch, just wasn't on time. Then, he was kind of spraying his slider and in [the 3-1] count, don't really want to walk me. But I'm pretty much always on the fastball right there.”

It marked the second-hardest pitch Torkelson has hit out in his career, behind only the 99.8 mph heater he took deep off Emmanuel Clase on Sept. 29, 2023. It’s also the 15th time Torkelson has homered off a fastball at 95 mph or hardest, including his drive off Chad Patrick on Wednesday that went to nearly the same spot as Thursday’s heroics.

Torkelson's .537 slugging percentage against pitches 95 mph+ ranks 16th among 186 hitters with at least 100 plate appearances ending on those pitches since the beginning of 2025. His latest feats only add to that.

“I think I'm just on time, just being on time and being ready,” Torkelson said.

Torkelson’s latest homer came an inning after Jahmai Jones had tied the game with a pinch-hit home run off lefty reliever Angel Zerpa.

“I'm proud of him, because mentally for him, he's getting a lot of questions, he's getting a lot of doubt,” Hinch said of Torkelson. “But never internal, never by us, never by his teammates, and certainly not by him.”