00:00Salvador Perez launched a go-ahead three-run home run that seemed to summon the weather itself.
00:06The dark storm clouds had already gathered beyond the home plate seating at Comerica Park,
00:10and as Perez rounded the bases celebrating his 30th career home run against the Tigers,
00:15the TARP crew moved almost in step with his trot. What followed was a 46-minute rain delay,
00:20the second weather stoppage in the series finale. It could have served as a reset for a Detroit team
00:26that had just watched a five-run lead evaporate. Instead, given the way the Tigers performed
00:31throughout this homestand, the break felt more like an extended seventh-inning stretch.
00:36Drink some caffeine and stay locked in, Riley Green said afterward. His game-tying two-run
00:43double in the ninth inning brought the Tigers back from being down to their final strike,
00:48pushing them to the edge of a sixth consecutive victory. Moments later, Colt Keith's line drive
00:53dropped into right-center field for a walk-off single, sealing a 10-9 win over the Kansas City
00:58Royals. In less than a week, the mood surrounding this club had completely shifted. Detroit not only
01:03finished a perfect homestand of six or more games for the first time in five years, they also extended
01:09their longest winning streak since their September surge two seasons ago. On top of that, they swept
01:15a three-game set against an American League Central rival, with all three victories coming on go-ahead
01:21hits in their final at-bats. At 10-9, Detroit departed the Motor City on Thursday night trailing
01:28the Minnesota Twins by just one game. A four-game sweep at Target Field from April 6th to 9, suddenly
01:35felt like it belonged to a different chapter of the season. Two series sweeps in a row, that's huge,
01:42especially after getting swept in Minnesota, said Keith, whose jersey was torn away during the
01:47celebration of his first career walk-off hit. It feels like it kind of makes up for it in a
01:52way,
01:53but we're playing good baseball right now, we just have to keep doing that. When asked what stood out
01:58most about this homestand, Manager A. J. Hinch answered without hesitation.
02:04Just our fight, Hinch said. Part of our DNA is our willingness to do anything, but the other part that
02:11comes with that is, we're going to play until the end, and we've had to do that. These are really
02:16kind of funky wins. The eighth inning has been magical here this homestand, or the ninth inning
02:22today, but our guys play our 27 outs, we care about results a ton, we need to stack these wins
02:28when we have an opportunity. But the way we fought with these two series, with this homestand, coming
02:33off of a really tough road trip, I think is a telling reminder that this team will play the whole
02:38game.
02:38That confidence stems from a roster that has navigated enough comebacks to know what's possible.
02:43It also draws on the experience of a club that weathered two distinctly different regular seasons
02:48and still reached the playoffs in each of the past two years. The young core is maturing.
02:54It doesn't feel like a roller coaster, especially not now, said catcher Dylan Dingler, whose two-run
02:59homer helped build a 6-1 lead after five innings before the Royals storm back with six runs in the
03:04seventh. We're playing good baseball right now, so we're just going to keep on running with it.
03:09You know you're going to respond when you're not playing your best baseball, coming into this
03:13homestand and being able to respond is huge. You look forward to that throughout the year,
03:18you try to do that throughout the year, especially make the lulls as short as possible.
03:23Thursday's lull barely lasted through the second rain delay, Kevin McGonigal tripled a lead off the
03:28bottom of the seventh, setting up Kerry Carpenter's pinch-hit sacrifice fly that pulled the Tigers within
03:33one run at 8-7, Vinny Pasquantino's solo homerun in the ninth provided Kansas City an insurance run,
03:39but Glaber, Torres, opened the bottom of the inning with a single, and McGonigal drew a walk
03:46with the assistance of the automated ball strike system that placed the tying run aboard with nobody
03:51out for the heart of the order against Royals. Closer. Lucas. Erseg.
03:59I was in the dugout feeling like it was kind of adding up that it was going to be me
04:03or Riley,
04:04Keith said. One of us was going to do it. In the end, both were needed. Erseg struck out Carpenter,
04:09and Jonathan India snagged a line drive off Dingler's bat. Green entered the at-bat two for
04:14three in his career against Erseg, but he had to battle with two strikes. While Green usually sits
04:19on fastballs, Erseg had thrown three straight heaters and appeared ready to switch to a change-up.
04:24The change-up stayed over the plate just enough for Green to guide it inside first base and down
04:29the right field line, just trying to stay to the big part of the field, as best I can, Green
04:34said.
04:35Keith, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh, saw two change-ups from Erseg.
04:40The first missed the zone. The second caught the plate. They were throwing me down and away all
04:46series, Keith said, just trying to get something close to me that I could drive. So, after witnessing a
04:52homestand filled with late drama, three walk-off moments, and a six-game sweep, I'll leave you
04:58with this thought. When a team keeps finding ways to win in its final at-bat, is that simply a
05:04hot
05:04streak, or is it the sign of something more sustainable brewing in the Motor City?
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