DETROIT -- The metrics suggested Spencer Torkelson’s first home run of the year was coming. He was waiting for his pitch and hitting the ball hard; he just wasn’t hitting the ball far … or far enough. Then came Chad Patrick’s sinker, which Torkelson lined over Comerica Park’s left-field fence for a two-run homer that gave Detroit the lead for good in a 5-2 win over the Brewers on Wednesday night.
Torkelson’s first home run since Sept. 20 of last year had seemingly been imminent, at least looking at his Baseball Savant page awash in red and pink for above-average data entering Wednesday. His elite chase rate (97th percentile) and walk rate (93rd percentile) entering showed a patient approach, even as his strikeout rate climbed to a career-high 30.2 percent. His bat speed, hard-hit rate and sweet-spot rate are all up or comparable to last year, showing he has been hitting balls capable of damage.
One big difference: Torkelson entered Wednesday batting just .225 with a .275 slugging percentage against fastballs, despite a higher average exit velocity of 93.1 miles per hour off the heater. His average launch angle against fastballs, however, had dropped from 22 degrees last year to 16 so far this season.
Torkelson seemed headed for the same fate Wednesday. After laying off changeups to draw a 3-1 count in his first at-bat, he got a 93.4 mph sinker from Brewers lefty opener DL Hall and crushed it on a line to left. The 106.2 mph exit velocity was his highest of the season up to that point. But the 18-degree launch angle sent it to Brewers left fielder Brandon Lockridge for the first out of the second inning. It was Torkelson’s 13th ball with a triple-digit exit velocity this season, but just three had gone for hits.
Two innings later, Torkelson stepped to the plate against Patrick, who entered his bulk assignment Wednesday with just a 12 percent strikeout rate this season but a mere .152 average (5-for-33) against right-handed hitters. He had succeeded this year by attacking righty hitters with fastballs (84.5 percent of his pitches had been four-seamers, sinkers or cutters) on the outer half of the plate.
Again, Torkelson worked into a favorable count by laying off pitches out of the zone. Patrick spotted a 2-0 cutter on the outside corner that Torkelson fouled off. Patrick’s 2-1 sinker wandered over the middle, and Torkelson crushed it. The 106.4 mph exit velocity was even harder than his first at-bat, but his 24-degree launch angle was higher, allowing him to send it over the bullpen and to the front row of the left-field seats.
Kevin McGonigle’s RBI double in the fifth inning and Colt Keith’s RBI single two batters later provided add-on runs in support of Casey Mize (2-1), who held Milwaukee’s opportunistic offense to a run on three hits over six-plus innings with three walks and seven strikeouts.