Spencer Torkelson Keeps Producing as the Tigers Win Six Straight
In this story:
The offensive formula could still work for the Detroit Tigers without Riley Greene, as long as Dillon Dingler and Spencer Torkelson find runners in scoring position and crushing pitches. But in early August, after the trade deadline, Greene went on the injured list, and both Dingler and Torkelson went through terrible slumps at the plate. Dingler saw his homerless streak extend to 111 plate appearances, the longest drought of his career, while Torkelson recovered sooner, although his home run came after 109.
The Tigers’ path toward October looks quite difficult, although mathematically they still have hope, especially when Greene, Torkelson and Dingler can be available and bring their power to the lineup. That is what happened Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, during Detroit’s crushing 10-1 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays to secure the series with two consecutive wins.
6IX STRAIGHT. pic.twitter.com/pGSMvyPl52
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 16, 2026
The Tigers’ streak has now extended to six consecutive victories, gaining momentum again when the odds of reaching the postseason seem elusive. Torkelson and Max Clark once again led Detroit’s offense, combining to drive in half of the team’s runs.
Clark opened the scoring at 1-0 after two outs with an RBI double against Michael Lorenzen, sending Greene to the plate in the top of the fourth inning. Then Torkelson stepped to the plate. In his first at-bat, the rookie left-hander Brendan Cellucci struck him out on a 1-2 count with a high fastball on the outside corner at 93 mph.
Lorenzen began the at-bat with a sweeper on the outside corner that Torkelson let go by. Then he threw another sweeper farther away and Torkelson missed it to make the count 1-1. Let me stop for a moment here. Look, Torkelson’s problems with the sweeper are as revealing as they are known to be.
If you go to his Baseball Savant page, you can find it, but here's a quick summary: he has averaged just .162 against them over the last two seasons, with only three home runs and 50 strikeouts. That’s terrible, and his swing-and-miss rate has increased from 35.5% in 2025 to 48.9% this year.
That’s how it happened: Lorenzen chose to throw another sweeper. With everything we already know, I wouldn’t tell you it was a bad idea. But it turns out that the execution resulted in delivering a sweeper, middle-middle, to a devourer of pitches in that area.
The greatest home run production of Torkelson’s career has come against pitches middle-middle with 37, and 17 when pitches try to cross the plate a little higher in that same vertical area. Torkelson’s blast came off the bat at 102.7 mph and traveled 379 feet through left-center field to give the Tigers an early 4-0 lead. The win probabilities gave a preview of the ending, putting Detroit at 86.1% at that moment, on a difficult night for Toronto’s pitchers.
TORKONTO 💣 pic.twitter.com/XziDgRltQN
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 16, 2026
Torkelson’s streak, beyond the home run
With his three-run homer, Torkelson reached 24 on the season with 72 RBIs and extended his streak to four consecutive games with at least one RBI. During that span, he is 6-for-15 (.400), with two home runs and six RBIs. He also leads the attack against Blue Jays pitchers, producing five RBIs and a .992 OPS in 21 plate appearances. Greene connected on a single, making the game 5-0 at the start of the fifth; he also reached 72 RBIs, joining Torkelson and Dingler (88) as the only hitters on the team with at least 20 home runs and 70 RBIs.
The Tigers will look for the sweep this Wednesday when they send Keider Montero to the mound to face veteran Max Scherzer, who allowed six runs over five innings last Friday against the Orioles. Montero has not been dominant in his recent appearances either. In August, he secured five innings in each of his five starts, with a 2-2 record and a 2.83 ERA. However, he has not been able to complete five innings in either of his two starts this month, allowing 10 hits, three home runs and eight runs in the same number of innings.
Once again, Detroit’s offense could be a determining factor in looking for its seventh consecutive victory and continuing on its way to its last road series against the Chicago White Sox.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Yirsandy is a baseball writer specializing in MLB coverage with experience across multiple teams and storylines. He currently writes for Diamond Centric, where he covers the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals. My work focuses on game coverage, player analysis, and storytelling that connects performance with context. My Substack has also been an important part of my writing development, where I’ve built much of my baseball coverage and storytelling voice over time. I’m passionate about combining reporting, research, and thoughtful analysis to produce engaging baseball content for readers.
Follow Yirsandy