Detroit Tigers’ winning streak carries a new mojo: ‘We show up expecting to win’

This time, there was no wild celebration. No walk-off puff of powder. No dumping of Gatorade buckets.

The Detroit Tigers‘ fifth-straight win was quick and efficient — some incredible pitching by Eduardo Rodriguez, a huge solo home-run shot by Riley Greene and some great defense by Matt Vierling.

As the Tigers lined up for handshakes and hugs, backslaps and smiles — tons of smiles — after a 1-0 victory in the second game of a doubleheader sweep Tuesday over the Cleveland Indians, somebody cued up Aretha Franklin:

“What you want, baby I got it …

All I’m asking is for a little respect.”

Well, the Tigers are earning it.

One victory at a time.

“Winning so much fun,” Spencer Torkelson said. “We show up to the yard every single day just kind of expecting our team to win.”

Yes, he just said that.

That’s the mood with a five-game streak.

Maybe, you are skeptical — and it’s understandable after years of struggle, or even after how it started the season.

But this team isn’t.

“Every team that I’ve been on in my life, that has won, we come to the yard every single day expecting a win, and you don’t know who the hero is going to be,” Torkelson said. “But you know, there’s going to be a hero. So I think there’s a lot of belief in us and we’re all pulling for each other and it’s a lot of fun.”

Who was the hero on Tuesday?

Too many to count after these two wins.

But here’s the cool thing: So many of these players should be here for years to come.

We are seeing youngsters grow before our eyes while figuring out how to win at the same time — at least, for a few days here.

Greene has snapped out of his funk and blasted a homer — the only run the Tigers needed.

Kerry Carpenter?

He was Mr. Walkoff in Game 1 on Tuesday in a 4-3 win.

His power is real.

“It’s complete team baseball,” said Torkelson, who made several fantastic defensive plays at first base, scooping balls out of the dirt. “E-Rod was unbelievable. Vierling’s catch — that was incredible. And then Greeney’s late homer. I mean, that’s a recipe for a win.”

Everybody contributing

In these five games, the Tigers have won every which way. They have had leads, blown them and then fought back.

They have climbed out of huge holes.

And they have built leads and hung on for the win.

Through all five games, manager A.J. Hinch has been pushing all the right buttons.

First, the big one. He benched Javier Báez for making a bonehead mistake in Toronto — the tipping point for a team that was making ridiculous mental mistakes.

That move could have gone sideways. Could have destroyed this team. Could have sent Báez into a spiral. But it didn’t. He has bounced back, said all the right things, responded in all the right ways, and this team hasn’t lost since.

But that was just the big button.

Through the last five games, Hinch keeps pushing all the small ones too, from how he’s using his bullpen to how he’s handling his players.

Greene had just five hits and 13 strikeouts over an eight-game span. But then he went 3-for-5 in Game 1 on Tuesday and hit the game-winning home run in Game 2.

“He’s a really good player,” Hinch said. “He’s learned a ton. He’s not fully developed. We’ll keep pushing him and trying to remind him how good he is during his low times, so that he can come out of it and have days like today.”

Can this team sustain this?

Maybe not the come-from-behind victories.

But it’s certainly interesting how they are doing it.

The have won in sunshine and in the freezing cold. They’ve won at night and in daylight. They’ve won with young and old.

It was Nick Maton’s three-run homer on Friday, and Miguel Cabrera’s 11th-inning single on Saturday, and Carpenter’s homer to end Game 1 on Tuesday.

Early front-office success

Here is something else to consider.

We are also seeing some of the moves by Tigers president Scott Harris show immediate results during this streak.

Consider Mason Englert. The Tigers took him in the Rule 5 draft, a guy who had just 15⅓ innings in Double-A.

That’s the guy they think can make an entire year in the big leagues?

It seemed highly unlikely.

Then, he goes out and throws three innings of scoreless ball in Game 1 in a high-pressure situation.

“He should know by now that he’s one of the guys that we really want to turn to that bridge,” Hinch said. “It’s nice to see him continue to be relentless.”

Or consider Tyler Holton.

The Arizona Diamondbacks designated Holton for assignment on Feb.15 after they signed Andrew Chafin.

The Tigers turned around and claimed Holton two days later.

On Saturday, Harris brought up Holton and he threw THREE innings of shutout ball in a win against San Francisco, his longest career outing.

So both Englert and Holton played key roles in two wins — who saw that coming?

Or consider the curious case of Zach McKinstry.

Three days before Opening Day, the Tigers traded for McKinstry, a utility player from the Cubs, who was out of options. McKinstry, who never played a single game in spring training for the Tigers, is not exactly ripping the cover off the ball.

But he’s contributing to wins. He started a huge double play in Game 1 on Tuesday; and in three wins over the last five games, he has gotten two hits and has two RBIs.

All those contributions start to add up.

And then, there’s the Gregory Soto trade.

Which seems to get better by the day.

Maton has gone 6-for-19 with three homers in his last seven days.

And Vierling looked like Superman in Game 2, soaring into the air and robbing a home run.

He banged into the blue McClaren Health Care sign and brought the ball back.

“As soon as he hit it, I was like, ‘Oh, this ball is out,'” Rodriguez said. “And it was going out, but he brought it back in.”

There is nothing fluky about these wins. It’s solid baseball.

It’s good defense and timely hitting and solid starting pitching and clutch hitting.

So is it sustainable?

You can be skeptical. That’s understandable.

But Torkelson has no doubt.