DETROIT — How did Riley Greene, who led the American League and set a Tigers single-season record for strikeouts last year, become one of the most effective ABS challengers in the league this season?
Of course, it starts with a knowledge of the strike zone and the confidence to stay within it, something he worked on a lot with offseason hitting. But there’s also a situational awareness of when it’s worth a challenge. And when Greene makes a challenge, it’s often meaningful — maybe none more so than Friday night.
What looked like an inning-ending called third strike became a full count when Greene made a challenge. Three pitches later, as his go-ahead triple clattered off the center-field fence, the challenge had turned the course of the sixth inning into a four-run rally and a 6-2 win over the Rockies at Comerica Park.
While Dillon Dingler has been the best at ABS from behind the plate in the system’s inaugural season in the Major Leagues, Greene has quietly put together an impressive record from the batter’s box. The sixth inning came together perfectly to put that to work once Gleyber Torres’ one-out walk off lefty reliever Mark Manfredi set Detroit’s go-ahead rally in motion.
Spencer Torkelson just missed a go-ahead homer, flying out to the warning track in left for the second out. Manfredi attacked Greene with fastballs in a lefty-lefty situation and seemingly had frozen him with a 2-2 heater on the outside corner that drew a call from home-plate umpire Ron Kulpa.
“We talk about conviction being one of the biggest things you need when you make a challenge,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He obviously felt good about it right away. These guys try to keep track of how many we have left because the game’s moving pretty fast. Everybody knows you want to try to hold one if you can, but obviously, if you have conviction, you should go with it.”
Greene had conviction, though it might have wavered a bit as the ABS graphic popped up on the giant video board in left field.
“I thought it was going to be closer than it was,” Greene admitted. “I think [Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman] caught it well. I don’t know, I didn’t have a chance to swing at it, and I thought it was a little off. So I just pulled the trigger on it.”
ABS showed Manfredi’s fastball to be just off the plate, giving Greene another chance. It was Greene’s ninth overturn in 13 challenges this season.
It’s not the rate, but the situation. Greene entered Friday with a net run value on challenges that led Tigers batters and ranked in the top five among American League hitters.
“It just depends on what’s going on in the game,” Greene said. “If there’s bases loaded and you think it’s off, yeah, let it rip. That wasn’t the case, [but] I felt like I was seeing the ball good and thought it was a ball, so I challenged.”
Said Hinch: “We’ve seen it flip at-bats.”
It clearly flipped Greene’s batting with Manfredi, who went back to the fastball to try to finish it off. Greene fouled off back-to-back heaters before getting one over the middle of the plate. The resulting drive sent Rockies center fielder Cole Carrigg scrambling to the fence near the deepest part of left-center.
Statcast projected the distance at 420 feet, Greene’s sixth-longest drive of the season. It was longest non-homer at Comerica Park this year, and tied for the eighth-longest non-homer in the Majors this season. It was still good enough to give Detroit the lead. The ball bounced off the fence and kept rolling, sending Torres home and Greene into third with his first Comerica Park triple since July 11 of last year.
“It is what it is. A triple’s nice, too,” Greene said with a smile.
Dingler greeted the next reliever, right-hander Nick Frasso, with a 408-foot drive to left field that left no doubt for his 27th homer of the season and first since Aug. 6.
Greene added an RBI double in the eighth, leaving him a home run shy of a cycle in a 3-for-4, two-RBI game. He’s batting 13-for-36 with 13 RBIs since returning from the injured list on Sept. 1, including 12-for-23 with eight extra-base hits over his last six games.
“He had a big night, in a couple different ways,” Hinch said. “The triple was perfectly placed, but also fun to watch him run around the bases.”
The rally made a winner out of starting pitcher Framber Valdez (10-10), who held the Rockies to an unearned run on six hits over six innings – his second consecutive outing without an earned run – to clinch his sixth consecutive season with double-digit wins.