TORONTO – Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson stood in front of his locker, brimming with confidence.
“I feel good,” Torkelson said a few hours before leading the Tigers to a 10-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in a sold-out Rogers Centre on Tuesday, Sept.15. “I’m seeing the ball well.”
Then, Torkelson went out and crushed a three-run homer, his 24th of the season, the big blow in the Tigers’ sixth-straight win. “I'm just sticking with the plan and grinding, showing up every single day, working my butt off,” he said. “And it’s working.”
Is it ever. After going homer-less in August, Torkelson has caught fire in September, hitting four homers in two weeks. He came into this game with a .262 batting average and .886 OPS for the month.
“Feel like I'm putting good at bats together,” Torkelson said.
Torkelson even picked up a stolen base in the sixth inning, his first of the season. Then, he scored on a single from John Peck, giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead. And Torkelson added a double in the eighth and scored on a throwing error.
The Tigers (72-79) remain 4½ games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the final wild card spot in the American League. The Guardians came from behind with a 7-6 walk-off win against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. The Tigers are 5½ games behind the White Sox in the AL Central with four critical upcoming games in Chicago later this week.
Just keep winning and it will take care of itself.
Drew Anderson's unusual versatility
Drew Anderson got the start for the Tigers, which was both noteworthy and significant. It was his 10th start to go along with 38 relief outings, becoming only the fourth player to do that in franchise history. And he was the only one of the four with a sub-4.00 ERA.
Anderson cruised along until he got into serious trouble in the third after he walked the bases loaded but he got out of it by getting Alejandro Kirk to ground out to third. Anderson pitched five scoreless innings, then, Jacob Waguespack handled the sixth and seventh.
Kyle Finnegan pitched the eighth and got into trouble when the Tigers misplayed a fly ball between left fielder Ben Malgeri and Peck, who raced into left field. Malgeri should have called it. But that allowed Alejandro Kirk to drive in a run.
Hinch didn't mess around. He took out Finnegan and brought in Brant Hurter to face Miles Straw and he got a double play to end the threat.
Torkelson leads sizzling hot Tigers
Braydon Fisher was the opener for the Blue Jays in a bullpen game. He started it off by walking both Kevin McGonigle and Gleyber Torres. But the Tigers failed to capitalize and let him off the hook when Hao-Yu Lee hit into a double play and Riley Greene struck out.
Hinch knew that the Blue Jays had five lefties in their bullpen, so he separated his lefty hitters, creating decision points, as he said. It’s the cat and mouse game of setting a lineup. The first big decision point was Max Clark, a lefty, who batted sixth. In the second inning, Toronto pulled out Fisher and brought in Brendan Cellucci, a lefty making his MLB debut. He struck out Clark and Torkelson.
The next big moment came in the fourth inning. Michael Lorenzen, the former Tiger, walked Greene and Valencia, which brought up Clark with two outs. He doubled to left, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Then, Torkelson capped it off with his homer to left, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead.
Riley Greene added an RBI single in the fifth inning off Lorenzen. Peck had an RBI single to make it 6-0.
And Lee mashed a homer in the ninth, his ninth.
Up next: Mad Max
The Tigers will go for the sweep at 3:07 p.m. Wednesday against a familiar pitcher.
Max Scherzer, the former Tiger, will start the third game of this series for Toronto, while Keider Montero will start for the Tigers. Yes, that has set up a strange situation around this park. Justin Verlander, 43, did a bullpen for the Tigers on Tuesday; Scherzer, 41, will pitch Wednesday and one was left to wonder: where are Anibal Sanchez and Rick Porcello?
Alas, even the old catcher showed up for it. Alex Avila, the former Tigers catcher, is attending this series doing some work for Detroit SportsNet. “It's definitely nostalgic, for sure,” Avila said. “Especially like last couple days hanging out with Justin and Max.”
Is he surprised to see them pitching into their 40s? “Not surprised at all,” Avila said. “I would have been more surprised if they weren't, which I know is crazy.”
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Spencer Torkelson powers sizzling-hot Tigers to 6th straight win
