Detroit – It was coming. He could feel it.
In his first at-bat, he hit a sizzler, 106.2 mph off his bat, right at the left fielder. Two innings later, with Riley Greene at second base following a double, Spencer Torkelson ignited a 2-1 sinker from right-hander Chad Patrick.
The ball left his bat on a line with an exit velocity of 106.4 and flew 400 feet over the bullpen in left-center. In his 88th place appearance of the season, Torkelson notched his first home run of the season.
The ball ended up in the Little Caesars glove on the bullpen roof, but it caromed off a fan. No free pizza, but it flipped the game and sent the Tigers to a series-evening 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of 20,378 at Comerica Park Wednesday night.
It was an impressive recovery from the 12-4 drubbing the night before, with the Tigers matching the Brewers’ aggressiveness and crispness on both sides of the ball.
Case in point. Javier Báez singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, rookie Kevin McGonigle, who extended his on-base streak to 20 straight starts, engaged Patrick in a 10-pitch battle. McGonigle fell into a quick 0-2 hole, worked the count full and then fouled off four straight pitches.
Báez had ended the top of the fifth with one of his patented but never boring quick tags, as catcher Jake Rogers threw out Sal Frelick trying to steal second. Báez stood motionless as the throw was coming and then, at the last second, caught it and slapped the tag in one motion.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Brewers 2
Kerry Carpenter capped the Tigers’ scoring, launching his fifth home run into the right-field seats in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Mize, for a third straight start, was brilliant. He went six innings, allowing a run on three hits with seven strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.51.
He started the game striking out four of the first five batters and he got the punch-outs with each of his four primary pitches – splitter, four-seamer, slider and sinker.
It set the tone for the outing. He and Rogers mixed his full arsenal expertly, even the occasional slow, sweeping slider. And the result was a lot of soft contact. The Brewers put 13 balls in play with an average exit velocity of 85.7 mph.
The lone run came in typical Brewers’ fashion in the third inning. With two outs, Mize walked leadoff hitter Brice Turang. Turang stole second, his seventh stolen base, and scored on a single by Frelick.
The only thing Mize won’t like about his outing were the three walks. The third one ended his outing to start the seventh inning.
But the Tigers’ bullpen finished what he started.
Kyle Finnegan pitched a scoreless seventh. He hasn’t allowed a run this season (11 innings). Then after the Brewers sniped a two-out run off Will Vest (RBI single by Jake Bauers) in the eighth, Kenley Jansen closed it out for his sixth save (482 in his career).
But it wasn’t easy. With two outs, Jansen walked the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters — David Hamilton and Luis Rengifo — to load the bases for the always dangerous Turang.
Jansen got him to ground out to first.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Torkelson breaks homer drought as Tigers even series
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
