CHICAGO — For the first time in his MLB career, Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning.
It was the 475th game of his career.
And it was the 75th homer of his career.
Torkelson powered the Tigers to a 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Monday, Aug. 11, in the first of three games in the series at Rate Field. The 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick slugged a solo home run against left-handed reliever Brandon Eisert with one out in the top of the ninth inning.
The ball deflected off the foul pole in left field.
“I was praying,” Torkelson said.
“That was fun,” he continued. “I feel like I haven’t had one of those, where I could watch it and see it hit the pole. Normally, I’m watching it, and it just goes barely foul, and it really hurts. So it was good to see it stay fair.”
From the dugout, manager A.J. Hinch had the best view of Torkelson’s clutch home run.
“Fair, all the way,” Hinch said, smiling.
Torkelson crushed Eisert’s middle-middle 90.4 mph four-seam fastball with a 107.6 mph exit velocity, sending it 393 feet down the left-field line.
He twisted his body as he watched the ball fly.
“It was hooking,” Hinch said. “I knew he crushed it, so it was a matter of whether or not it was going to hit the pole. He hit it just far enough and just fair enough.”
Torkelson didn’t need to see the ball to know he hit a home run.
His teammates confirmed it.
“I actually didn’t really know,” Torkelson said. “I didn’t see it that well, and then the dugout saw it hit the pole and bounce off, and they made noise. Being able to take it all in and look at the dugout and see them fired up was really cool.”
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In 2025, Torkelson is hitting .244 with 26 home runs, 48 walks and 117 strikeouts across 114 games, posting a career-high .820 OPS. He is on pace for 36 home runs, which would top his career-best 31 homers in 2023.
Torkelson has been one of the Tigers’ best four hitters, alongside Kerry Carpenter (.833 OPS in 91 games), Riley Greene (.820 OPS in 116 games) and Gleyber Torres (.784 OPS in 106 games).
Thanks to Torkelson, the Tigers have won two consecutive games and three of four games — and more notably, they’ve won nine of their last 14 games. Before the turnaround, the Tigers had a 1-12 record in 13 games, from July 9-26.
“I think it speaks a lot to like, we’re staying present, and we’re not really worried about the stretch that we had,” Torkelson said. “We feel like that was a little inevitable in a long season to go through a tough stretch.”
The Tigers (69-51) still have the second-best record among the 15 teams in the American League, trailing by a half-game to the Toronto Blue Jays.
They also have a 6½-game lead in the AL Central.
“I’m really happy with the way we persevered and got through that,” Torkelson said. “Definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re a really good team. We can win, and we can find different ways to win.”
On Monday night, the Tigers won with Torkelson’s clutch home run off the left-field foul pole, a solid start from right-hander Chris Paddack and flawless relief from high-leverage arms Kyle Finnegan and Will Vest.
They had to wait to celebrate.
Moments after Torkelson’s swing, rain poured down on Rate Field with two outs in the top of the ninth inning — delaying the game for 63 minutes.
What did the Tigers do during the delay?
“We were just enjoying that we were three outs away from a win,” Torkelson said.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers slugger Spencer Torkelson hits clutch homer off foul pole: ‘I was praying’
Reporting by Evan Petzold, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
