The Detroit Tigers had a wild 7-6 comeback win on the road against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, pulling to within 1.5 games of the Minnesota Twins for the last Wild Card spot in the American League. The big win fired up first baseman Spencer Torkelson.
“So awesome. So proud of everyone. We kept fighting,” Spencer Torkelson said, via Jackson Stone of MLB.com. “Even though we didn't have a lot of success early on, I feel like we were working at-bats and made him (Seth Lugo) a little tired and got him out of the game in the fifth inning. So that was huge to get to their bullpen. Huge clutch hitting by a bunch of guys. Awesome.”
Torkelson extended his hitting streak to seven games with two hits in the contest. He had a single, which resulted in the Royals pulling Seth Lugo in the fifth inning. He had another single in the ninth inning as well.
The Tigers fell down 4-0 early on after Bobby Witt Jr.'s grand slam in the bottom of the third inning. Detroit responded with a run on a Trey Sweeney sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, but then Maikel Garcia extended the Royals' lead to 5-1 with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
In the fifth, the Tigers came away with three runs on a Matt Vierling RBI single and a Colt Keith two-run home run. That was the key inning in which Torkelson referenced Lugo coming out of the game., and it made the score 5-4 Kansas City.
Bobby Witt Jr. hit an RBI single in the bottom of the inning, but Detroit came storming back in the sixth. Wenceel Perez hit a pinch-hit, two-run double to tie the game at six, and then Vierling hit a single to give the Tigers the lead for good.
Combined with the Minnesota Twins blowing a game against the Cleveland Guardians, the Tigers have legitimate hopes of getting that last playoff spot.
Spencer Torkelson trying to close season strong with Tigers
It has been an eventful season for Torkelson, and the Tigers even demoted him to AAA at one point due to his struggles. He was expected to be a key piece of the Tigers' rebuild, and his second half has been a lot better than the first.
In the first half, Torkelson had a 70 wRC+, which is 30 percent below league average for offense, according to FanGraphs. In the second half, he has a 126 wRC+.
That is carried by his mark of 166 in August, and so far in September, he is at 83. Hopefully down the stretch, Torkelson can perform like he did in August to help the Tigers make a playoff push and provide optimism heading into 2025.
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