CINCINNATI — The last time Spencer Torkelson was on a roll like this, he was at peak Tork phenom at Arizona State. He had a lot of homer streaks as a Sun Devil, but he homered in four straight games near the end of his sophomore season, a 23-homer, 66-RBI campaign in 2019 that powered him to the front of the MLB Draft prospect list for 2020.
This is different. Beyond the obvious differences in the college game, Torkelson started out hot and stayed hot in 2019. This year, Torkelson went homerless in his first 23 games and was batting just .186 in that stretch, a slow start that — combined with Dillon Dingler’s hot start — led to Torkelson’s drop to the bottom third of the lineup.
Torkelson’s home run Wednesday at Comerica Park off Milwaukee’s Chad Patrick was his first since last Sept. 20. He has homered in every game since, a four-game streak that stands as the longest by a Tiger in a decade. His latest homer, a Statcast-projected 395-foot drive off Reds starter Brady Singer, went out to right-center, where Torkelson tries to hit everything when he’s on.
It wasn’t enough to lift the Tigers out of the hole the Reds built for them by jumping struggling starter Jack Flaherty for six runs in two innings in a 9-2 defeat. It was still enough to force a Reds pitching adjustment.
The patient Torkelson who grinded out at-bats and waited diligently for his pitch early in the season has given way to a more aggressive Torkelson. He’s still selective, still rarely chasing pitches out of the strike zone. But now, he’s hunting fastballs and attacking them regardless of count.
Torkelson entered Saturday having put the first pitch of an at-bat in play just twice all season, both for outs. He was also 0-for-7 against Singer since 2022, when Singer was still a division rival with Kansas City. Torkelson hit a comebacker for an out in his first at-bat Saturday, but when Singer left a 91 mph sinker over the heart of the plate to begin his second at-bat, Torkelson pounced.
“I like that he’s been a tick more aggressive in recent days,” manager A.J. Hinch said before the game, “and maybe that comes with success a little bit. I think it’s not a whole philosophical change.”
Indeed, Torkelson said, he hasn’t overhauled his approach.
“I’m hunting my pitch,” he said before the game. “I feel like for the most part, if I’m not swinging at the first pitch, it’s probably a pitcher’s pitch, and I don’t want to get myself out on a pitcher’s pitch. … No crazy adjustment. …
“Swing on time, hunt my pitch and put my swing on it. That’s it.”
All four of Torkelson’s home runs this season have been on fastballs. He entered Saturday averaging a 93.6 mph exit velocity against fastballs, his highest average since his 31-homer season of 2023.
“As soon as you feel it once, your brain’s crazy. It just likes to repeat it,” Torkelson said.
Not since Ian Kinsler’s 28-homer, 5.6 bWAR season in 2016 had a Tiger homered in four consecutive games. Kinsler was already hitting well before his streak began, batting .295 with six homers and seven doubles in his first 35 games. Kinsler went on a tear from there, including another streak of three games with a homer a month later.
Kinsler’s streak couldn’t have come at a better time for the 2016 Tigers, who had lost 11 of 12 before Kinsler’s roll helped them salvage a win in Baltimore and then sweep the Twins in Detroit.
The frustrating part of Torkelson’s roll is that the Tigers have struggled to take advantage of it the past two nights. His home run Friday off Reds reliever Tony Santillan helped spark an eighth-inning comeback that had Detroit an out away from a win before Nathaniel Lowe’s walk-off homer off Kenley Jansen. Saturday saw the Tigers face a five-run deficit before Torkelson’s homer, and Detroit didn’t score again.
Once Torkelson came back up with a runner on first in the sixth, the Reds pulled Singer for slider specialist Connor Phillips, who fanned Torkelson on three sweepers.
Torkelson will step to the plate Sunday with a chance to match the franchise-record home-run streak of five games, a feat shared by such greats as Hank Greenberg (Sept. 10-14, 1940), Willie Horton (Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1969), Rudy York (Aug. 22-25, 1937) and Vic Wertz (July 27-Aug. 1, 1950). Marcus Thames was the last to do it, homering six times in a five-game span from June 13-17, 2008. White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami has the longest home-run streak in the Majors this season, with five games.
