DETROIT – Spencer Torkelson has learned to ride the ups and downs of a long baseball season. Posting two 30-homer seasons in the last three years, with a demotion to Triple-A Toledo in between, has helped teach him patience.
“Gotta stay pretty even,” he said.
Even for him, this season has tested that. He was a hard-luck, sub-.200 hitter for the first few weeks of the season, hitting balls hard with little to show for it. Then he was the hottest hitter in baseball during a five-game home-run streak in late April. Then he was struggling again, batting .122 (5-for-41) in May and back under .200 for the season entering Friday’s series opener against the Blue Jays.
So as Torkelson watched his line drive to right-center field fall for a walk-off single and a 3-2 victory, he had every reason to celebrate.
With a simple swing on a Jeff Hoffman fastball at the top of the zone, Torkelson produced not only his first RBI hit in a week, but his first hit of any kind since last Sunday in Kansas City. His single also ended the Tigers’ three-game losing streak, earned their first win in a series opener in a month and helped change the mood on a team that had every reason to wonder what else could go wrong.
“I feel really good for him,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, this has not been an easy few weeks for him, and he wears it internally. I think externally, he just continues to post, continues to put in the work.”
Said Torkelson: “It [stinks] not producing because you want to help the team win, but you know as long as you stick with it, keep grinding, keep working hard and stick to an approach, you're going to come through it. I believe that always, sometimes more than other times.”
In many ways, his consistency is a microcosm of the mentality that carries the Tigers through what has been a miserable stretch of injuries and losses.
“It wasn’t an easy night tonight, and yet he comes up in a big moment,” Hinch continued. “You never know when your opportunity’s going to come to make it all better. So for him to be able to stay in that at-bat, back-end guy, ton of velo, two strikes, at home, big crowd, we desperately needed a win to feel good about the end of the game. It’s a great reward.”
For much of the night, that opportunity seemed highly unlikely. The Tigers, already dealing with an injury-riddled rotation, lost bulk pitcher Ty Madden in the third inning after he took a line drive off his forearm having faced two batters, forcing Hinch to mix and match with his bullpen again in a 2-0 deficit. Simply filling innings was enough of a challenge, let alone staying within striking distance. But with six scoreless innings combined, Burch Smith and Drew Anderson did it.
Two Trey Yesavage wild pitches brought Kevin McGonigle around for the first Tigers run in the third inning. A Dillon Dingler infield single, throwing error and Riley Greene double tied it in the sixth.
Hoffman, tasked with sending the game to extra innings, fanned Greene and Gage Workman but allowed a Matt Vierling bloop single in between. Torkelson, having struck out, flown out and walked in his first three plate appearances, waited on deck as Zach McKinstry stepped into the box.
Hoffman has been high-risk, high-reward this season. Workman was his 34th strikeout in just 19 1/3 innings, but he had also allowed 26 hits. He also has struggled to control baserunners, which Vierling exploited by stealing second on his 1-0 pitch to McKinstry.
With first base suddenly open, Hoffman intentionally walked McKinstry to bring up Torkelson. Never mind that right-handed hitters were 15-for-34 off Hoffman this season entering that at-bat.
Torkelson didn’t need a home run. He just needed a single. But once Hoffman put him in a 1-2 count, that seemed a challenge.
“Feels like I've just walked up there with two strikes recently,” Torkelson said. “He's got good stuff. Really the entire at-bat, I was just trying to grind it out and do whatever it takes to get the job done. And then as soon as I got to two strikes, just had to reinforce that plan, don't try to do too much, shorten up and get the job done by any means.”
When Torkelson is right, his approach isn’t for home runs to left, but line drives to right-center. When Hoffman followed a 97 mph high fastball out of the zone with a 96 mph heater at the top, that’s just what Torkelson did.
“Been a little passive, not as aggressive as I want to be,” Torkelson said. “I think it's a good start tonight.”