Detroit — Reese Olson’s phenomenal day on the mound was saved by a sixth-inning home run from Riley Greene that travelled 453 feet — the longest of his career — and secured a 3-0 Detroit Tigers win at Comerica Park on Thursday.
Greene’s secret? Living más.
The 22-year-old outfielder said his teammate Spencer Torkelson told him Wednesday night’s two-homer performance was brought to you by Taco Bell. Naturally, Greene — who was hitting .208 in his last 12 games — followed suit.
“Just kind of a superstition thing, kinda funny,” Greene said. “I don’t even know (what I ordered). I ordered a lot. A lot of Doritos Locos tacos.”
The sixth-inning home run was not a moment too soon. Olson, who’d thrown six innings of flawless baseball to that point, knew his day was done. It was now or never for him to also earn the win after giving up no hits, three walks and striking out eight for the Tigers (52-63), who moved to seven games back of first place in the AL Central.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen a ball like that in a while,” Olson said. “It was impressive.”
Prior to Thursday’s series finale against the Twins, Tigers manager AJ Hinch issued a prophecy for Olson, the rookie right-hander. Olson had been rouged up a bit, of late, allowing four or more runs through the first three innings of his last three starts.
“He’s gotta come in locked in, that there are no free strikes, that there are no free at-bats,” Hinch said. “That approach will do him well.”
Indeed, it did.
“They had a few balls that were hit hard that I got kinda lucky on, but (I) have the defense behind me and make some good pitches. … Satisfying for sure,” Olson said, giving credit to Tigers catcher Jake Rogers for settling him down.
“(He was) reminding me of my cues that help me make good pitches. In those big situations, being able to stick my heater where I need it changes everything.”
The Tigers have won seven of the 10 games against Minnesota this season, and with only two games remaining next week, Detroit will win the season series for the first time since 2016.
Greene added a double in the eighth, Kerry Carpenter extended his hit streak to seven games and Zach McKinstry hit a two-run double with the bases loaded for the Tigers (52-63).
As it would turn out, Hinch’s words of wisdom were for the relievers, too: The combo of Chasen Shreve and Beau Brieske pitched three combined innings of hitless relief to secure the pitching staff’s 11th shutout of the year and the second of this week’s series against the AL Central-leading Twins (60-57). Detroit shut Minnesota out, 6-0, on Tuesday. Brieske secured the save, just the second of his career.
Right-handed Twins starter Kenta Maeda put in a strong day’s work until Greene took him deep in the sixth. He allowed one run on three hits with one walk and four strikeouts. The Twins totaled just two hits as a team and didn’t have any in the final four innings.
“He was hitting his spots. He wasn’t missing much. He was throwing his fastball where he wanted and his slider where he wanted, too,” Greene said. “There were some pitches I came back in and looked at them, and they were right on the white line. He was really good today.”
All was relatively quiet until the home team came up to bat in the fourth. The Tigers tried to get a two-out rally going with Torkelson’s walk, putting two runners on with two outs, but Carpenter popped up to end the inning.
It was the Twins’ turn to threaten in the fifth. Joey Gallo drew a one-out walk and Christian Vazquez singled the next at-bat on a perfectly executed hit-and-run to put runners at the corners. The first line of defense for Olson was a swooping, backdoor curveball right on the black to strike out Julien. He got Jorge Polanco to ground out and end the inning.
Tigers center fielder Matt Vierling made a nice play to keep the game scoreless, when Max Kepler put a charge into a 2-1 fastball down the middle from Olson in the sixth. Vierling tracked the ball all the way to the wall, leaping lightly into the padding while making the catch.
After Greene’s homer in the sixth, Carpenter got the scoring going in the seventh with a one-out single that allowed Javier Báez to place a picture-perfect bunt down the third-base line to put runners at first and second. Jake Rogers kept the line moving with a lined single of his own.
After getting to a 1-2 count against Twins reliever Dylan Floro, the lefty McKinstry pulled a changeup on the outside corner to right-center for a base knock that brought home Carpenter and Báez for the 3-0 lead.
Shreve pitched an inning of scoreless relief and Brieske pitched the final two, allowing no hits between them. The biggest hiccup came when Kepler hit a flyout to the wall that was tracked down by Akil Baddoo in the ninth inning.
Greene doubled to lead off the eighth, but the Tigers couldn’t use it to add any insurance runs, as Baddoo, Torkelson and Carpenter went down in order to end the frame.
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi
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