00:00Tigers fans, let's take a moment to appreciate what we just watched.
00:04Spencer Torkelson opened the week as a sub-200 hitter who still hadn't hit a home run this
00:09season, yet he kept telling anyone who would listen that he believed the results would
00:13eventually catch up to the metrics.
00:15By the time the weekend wrapped up, he'd written his name all over the Detroit record
00:19books.
00:20For the fifth consecutive game, Torkelson went deep, this time a drive to left center
00:24off a right-handed reliever who was brought in specifically to keep him from trotting
00:28around the bases, the blast provided an insurance run in the Tigers' 8-3 win, but more than
00:34that, it launched Torkelson into truly elite company in franchise history.
00:38Torkelson's five-game home run streak ties the Tigers' record, placing him alongside
00:42Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, Rudy York, Vic Wertz, Willie Horton, and Marcus Thames.
00:48It also matches White Sox slugger Munitaka Murakami for the longest streak in the majors
00:53this season.
00:54Now Torkelson heads to Atlanta on Tuesday for the start of a three-game series against
00:59the Braves, with a chance to not only set a new Tigers' record, but become the first
01:03MLB player with a six-game homer streak since Rafael Devers did it in 2024.
01:08How did he get here?
01:09Torkelson heated up this week by destroying fastballs over the plate.
01:12He had been hitting them hard for much of the season, but with little to show for it.
01:21Till I serve...
01:22Somber somber sign a nescent adibrate the heater from Milwaukee's Chad Patrick over the left
01:28field fence at Comerica Park on Wednesday.
01:30That was the homer that finally put Torkelson on the board for 2026, and it set him loose
01:35for what has become a daily ritual.
01:37The next day, Torkelson crushed his first career walk-off homer off a 99-92 MEP fastball
01:44from Abner Uribe.
01:45He crushed a rising fastball from previously scoreless Reds reliever Tony Santalan and sent
01:51it into Great American Ballpark's left field upper deck Friday night.
01:54Igniting a go-ahead rally in the eighth inning, he went oppo with Brady Singer's hanging sinker
01:59on Saturday for a solo homer to right center, becoming the first Tiger to homer in four consecutive
02:05games since Ian Kinsler in 2016.
02:08From that point, the Reds seemed determined to limit Torkelson's fastball opportunities,
02:13feeding him a steady diet of breaking pitches and off-speed stuff.
02:16He still crushed a Brock Burke changeup over center fielder TJ Friedel's head for a double
02:21in Sunday's sixth inning, so it was no surprise when Reds manager Terry Francona replaced lefty
02:26reliever Sam Maul with right-hander Pierce Johnson as Torkelson stepped to the plate in the seventh
02:31inning following Howe Uli's go-ahead pinch hit homer. Johnson throws curveballs 72% of the time,
02:37but he offered Torkelson two fastballs over the plate. With a curveball in the dirt in between,
02:42Torkelson fouled off the first fastball, laid off the curveball, and then pummeled the 1-1 heater,
02:47sending it a stat-cast estimated 421-foot drive to left center. Before this stretch, Torkelson had
02:53never homered in more than two consecutive games in his professional career. The last time he did
03:00anything close was as a sophomore at Arizona State when he homered in four straight games.
03:05So here's the question. With history on the line Tuesday night in Atlanta, do you think Torkelson
03:11has one more swing in him to stand alone as the only Tiger ever to homer in six straight and
03:17become
03:17the first player in the big leagues to do it in two years?
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