2024-05-05 09:27:41
Detroit Tigers (18-15) at New York Yankees (22-13)
When: 13:35 Sunday.
Where: Yankee Stadium in New York.
TV: Bally Sports Detroit. (Got Xfinity but still looking for a way to watch BSD? Here are some other options.)
Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1). (Tigers radio affiliates).
Likely pitchers: Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (4-0, 1.72 ERA) vs. Yankees LHP Nestor Cortes (1-3, 3.86).
Tigers series: TBA.
JEFF SEIDEL: Xfinity, Bally Sports fight costs me Detroit Tigers games. And I can’t take it anymore.
Game Notes: How hot is Riley Greene at the plate right now? His leadoff home run Saturday continued a seven-game hitting streak in which he has a .423/.466/.846 slash line. His 1.312 OPS over that span is the best by a Tiger since Kerry Carpenter posted a 1.440 OPS in seven games from Aug. 19-26 last season.
After starting the season on a walking tear — with 21 free passes in 26 games — Greene has found his power stroke, hitting three homers (including Saturday’s) in a seven-game span. That brings him to eight homers in the Tigers’ first 33 games and puts him in a select group; Greene is just the third Tiger to hit eight homers in the season’s first 33 games before turning 24. The other? Willie Horton, with nine in 1965 (in just 23 games!) and Jason Thompson, with 10 in 1978. However, both Horton and Thompson cooled off in the final 129 games of the season, with Horton finishing with 26 homers and Thompson with 26.
Greene is on pace for 39 homers, the most ever by a Tiger 23 or younger — passing Rudy York’s 35 as a 23-year-old in 1937, Matt Nokes’ 32 as a 23-year-old in 1987, Thompson ‘s 31 as a 22-year-old in 1977 and of course Spencer Torkelson’s 31 at age 23 last season.
Greene has feasted on fastballs this season, posting a .362 average and hitting .690 (five doubles and four homers) on heaters. The good news for Greene: He’ll be facing a Yankee starter whose fastball isn’t quite what it used to be. Nestor Cortes has a six-pitch repertoire, but he still relies on his four-seam fastball nearly 50% of the time. In 2022, it made him an All-Star and a top-10 finisher in AL Cy Young voting as he limited batters to a .157 average and slugged .240 in the field, which ‘ resulted in a plus-22 run value. In 2024, however, he was a four-seamer much more vulnerable: Batters are batting .263 of them, with a .461 slugging percentage. Will Cortes stick with the four-seamer? In his last start, April 30 once morest the Orioles, he threw it 60 times in 94 pitches (63.8%), while going to his cutter 20 times (21.2%). The Tigers, meanwhile, entered Saturday hitting .250 once morest cutters and .232 once morest four-seamers.
After today’s series finale, the Tigers hit the road for a visit to Cleveland and the AL Central-leading (though just barely) Guardians for three games, beginning Monday night. The Yankees, meanwhile, have the day off before starting a series in the Bronx once morest the Houston Astros.
TIGERS NEWSLETTER: Tarik Skubal tops AL Cy Young contenders following dominant April
Live updates
For updates on and around the diamond, check it out on X.
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