Washington, D.C. — Riley Greene’s home run to right field in the sixth inning Friday night was a Statcast marvel. He hit it with a 40-degree launch angle (his average angle is 3.7 degrees) and lofted it 162 feet into the air.
That was the third-highest home run hit in the big leagues this year.
It was, as was suggested to Greene before Saturday’s game, like a 9-iron shot.
“No,” Greene said. “I usually skull my 9-iron.”
Ha. That one was scorched. It was a 2-2 sweeper from right-handed reliever Thaddeus Ward located down and in. The ball left his bat at 110.7 mph and soared 393 feet into the fourth row of seats beyond the right-field wall.
“I just saw the sweeper pop a little bit and I got the barrel to it,” Greene said. “It just went super high.”
Going into play Saturday, Greene had hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games and over the span slashed .382/.427/.539 with six doubles, two homers and 10 RBIs. Nobody has hit for a better average in baseball since April 26.
“He’s one of our best players,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “He’s young and he’s learning. He plays with energy. Really, he’s kind of a magnet for the rest of his teammates. There’s just so much that he brings and when he’s playing like this, our offense is better. Period.”
Elevating baseballs, though, remains a lingering issue for Greene. His ground ball rate last season was 55.8% and it’s worse this season, 56.5%. But he’s hitting a lot more balls hard — 6.3% barrel rate with an average exit velocity of balls in play at 91 mph. That’s in the top 73 percentile in baseball.
“I’m not trying to hit the ball on the ground, obviously,” he said. “It really just comes down to the pitch I swing at.”
He had two ground ball outs to shortstop Friday, both on pitches that jammed him. But Ward’s sweeper was right in his happy zone and he turned on it.
“I’m not trying to pull the ball,” he said. “I try to hit it the other way and that helps me stay on the off-speed pitches. But I’m going to pull the ball naturally when it happens.”
The last thing the Tigers want is for Greene to steepen his launch angle or change his hitting approach.
“I don’t pay any attention to launch angles,” Hinch said. “I just know it was over the fence.”
Light show
Both Greene in center field and Matt Vierling in right field lost balls in the lights at Nationals Park Friday night.
Shortstop Javier Báez bailed out Greene with a spectacular running catch some 248 feet into center field. The liner that Vierling lost came in the sixth inning and it was the first hit allowed by Matthew Boyd.
“Matt’s was tough,’ Greene said. “He was running from the line into the gap. The lights are positioned here to where they are right in the gap. In center, that’s the only spot where you aren’t looking into the lights. It’s like an opening and the lights are all around it.”
The fourth deck at Nationals Stadium is the highest in baseball, higher even than PNC Park in Pittsburgh. The banks of lights go down each line to the foul poles. But there are no lights directly behind the plate.
“In the dugout I told Javy, ‘Tough sky,’” Greene said. “And then of course, the ball goes up and I’m like, ‘I can’t see it, I can’t see it.’ I saw Javy’s head go down and he came running out. I saw the ball literally at the last second and I just slid. We are taught that outfielders slide and infielders stay up.
“If Javy’s not there, I might’ve been able to catch it. I was right there. But he made it look really easy.”
Step by step
Hinch was among a large group of players, coaches and staff members who watched lefty Tarik Skubal’s bullpen session before the game.
“It was a good step forward for him,” Hinch said. “We will continue to go next outing to next outing. He will throw again in Kansas City. We’re taking this session-by-session approach and reading and reacting to each one. There is no date circled that we’re trying to accomplish something by.”
Hinch said they tried to treat it like a start day for Skubal, who is coming back from flexor tendon surgery. They even simulated an up-down (between innings). Skubal’s intensity was palpable.
“You just don’t know how much you miss it until you don’t have it anymore,” Hinch said. “He’s such a big personality on our team and such a good pitcher. He gets a ton of joy when he gets to compete and now he’s getting to compete with himself.”
Twitter: @cmccosky
Tigers at Nationals
First pitch: 1:35 p.m. Sunday, Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
TV/radio: BSD/97.1
Scouting report
LHP Joey Wentz (1-3, 6.38), Tigers: It’s been a rough month. In his three starts in May, Wentz has allowed 10 runs, 18 hits, four home runs, five walks, a .310 opponent average, .552 slug and .911 OPS. His fastball command has been inconsistent, leaving too many in hitters’ hot zones, as evidenced by the .344 average and .623 slug off that pitch.
RHP Josiah Gray (3-5, 2.73), Nationals: He’s allowing a little over two runs a game (2.08) over his last eight starts and holding hitters to a .235 batting average. He’s not a big chase or swing-and-miss guy, but he keeps balls off barrels with a clever mix of firm sliders (.169 opponent average, 32.6% whiff), curves and cutters off a 93-94 mph four-seam fastball.