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Tigers Remain Undefeated When Everyone Touches Riley Greene's Lucky Mustache

Struggling team had lost 12 of 13 before drastic facial hair change.

Kyle Koster

The Tigers are 3-0 since Riley Greene started sporting new facial hair.
The Tigers are 3-0 since Riley Greene started sporting new facial hair. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The Detroit Tigers have been the best team in baseball for most of the season but reverted back to the pack over the past few weeks thanks to a brutal slump. Entering last Sunday's game they had dropped 12 of 13 games and fallen out of position for one of the byes in the American League playoff picture. So Riley Greene took the drastic step of turning his beard into a mustache, hoping the change in facial hair could be the thing that finally turned things around.

And it has.

The Tigers drubbed the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night for their third consecutive victory in the 'stache era. Greene himself homered and had two doubles for his first three extra-base hit game in his already impressive career. Gleyber Torres, who was seen rubbing the lip fuzz for luck, blasted an opposite-field home run. Wencel Perez was a homer shy of the cycle and stole two bases.

"It's not a good look," Greene said after the game. "It's not a good look. But if it means winning, then I’ll keep it."

"We've all touched it," Tigers A.J. Hinch said. "I'm not sure how that's going to go over with quotes around it. Then in the handshake line, he said, 'We're 3-0 with it.'"

Detroit goes for the sweep against Arizona on Wednesday afternoon. Greene is now forced to keep the look until they lose. He knows it doesn't look good but it's a small sacrifice to pull everyone out of a dreadful quagmire.

If the Tigers keep playing well you can rest assured the crowd is going to have more mustaches in solidarity. Something to look forward to.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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