Will Huge Home Run for Young Tigers Star Snap Him Out of Brutal Slump?

The Detroit Tigers could really use this player to start hitting.

Sep 10, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; Detroit Tigers second baseman Colt Keith (33) hits a two run home run during the ninth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers had a historic couple of days in the first two games of their series against the New York Yankees, becoming the first team in baseball history to hand the Yankees consecutive home losses by double-digit runs.

Dominating a good team -- especially one as universally disliked as New York -- is always something to enjoy, but perhaps the biggest moment of the two-night dismantling may have come after the game was already very much decided on Wednesday.

In the top of the ninth inning with the score already sitting at 9-1, Colt Keith stepped up to the plate as a pinch-hitter and smacked his first career pinch-hit home run out to right field that made the score 11-1.

fuhgeddaboudit pic.twitter.com/cVG1twa64w

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 11, 2025

Though Keith's dinger did not have any real impact on the final result of the game, it could help to break him out of what has been an ugly slump over the last couple of weeks. Even after the home run, Keith is slashing .171/.216/.286 over his last 11 contests, as he's starting to disappear at exactly the wrong time for Detroit.

Keith Has Been Tremendous in Spurts This Season For Tigers

Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

The overall numbers on the season for Keith are encouraging for the long-term, especially since they already committed real money to him with a pre-debut extension. He has slashed .253/.330/.415 on the year, already breaking nearly every statistical milestone he set during his rookie season in 2024.

That also has been the result of an impressive rebound from what was an ugly start to the 2025 campaign, where he made numerous errors in the field and wasn't effective on offense to make up for those defensive blunders.

He also made an invaluable switch to third base in order to solve what has been an ongoing issue for the team, potentially throwing his hat in the ring to be the long-term answer at the hot corner after the position has been a revolving door for years now.

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Before starting the cold streak right at the end of August, it looked like the 24-year-old was starting to put it all together with a slash line of .275/.330/.488 for the month with four home runs and nine RBI. Keith has had similar periods earlier this season (May was his best statistical month), but he was unable to sustain it over the course of the full year.

The last couple of weeks have been a step in the wrong direction, but perhaps the home run can be the spark Keith needed to get his bat going again right before the playoffs begin. There's no question that when he is hot, this offense is a much better of a spot than when he isn't.

If he can take this moment where he was able to make something happen for the offense and spin it into producing once again at the plate, Keith is going to have the chance to help this team make a very deep run this October.