BOSTON — When the lineup was posted ahead of the Tigers’ series opener against the Red Sox on Friday night, Riley Greene’s name wasn’t on it.
As Detroit continues to monitor Greene’s workload following his return from a stint on the injured list, Friday was a scheduled off-day for the outfielder.
Manager A.J. Hinch said pregame that Greene would be “very available,” but the club hoped to stay away from using him in order to give Greene a true rest day after he started all nine of the Tigers’ games to open the month.
But as soon as Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale’s night was done in the fifth, Greene came in as a pinch-hitter for No. 9 hitter Eric Haase. Greene’s impact was felt promptly, as he drove in Javier Báez on an RBI single to cut Detroit’s deficit in half in an eventual 5-2 loss to Boston at Fenway Park.
Greene’s RBI knock followed Kerry Carpenter’s two-out solo home run to break up Sale’s perfect-game bid in the lefty’s first start off the injured list. The Tigers seemed poised for a fifth-inning comeback until Matt Vierling struck out on four pitches to end the frame.
“You need to close the gap here, because [the Red Sox] can get some momentum on their side,” Hinch said. “They obviously can create some innings together. [Starter] Tarik [Skubal] didn’t get the first hitter [of each inning] out, I think, until the fifth inning. … That’s momentum — they put a lot of pressure on him.
“So any time you can come back a little bit, it’s nice. We still had a couple more runners on base if we could get one more two-out hit and make it even better for us, but they had the biggest swings of the night.”
In his first at-bat against the veteran Sale, Carpenter flew out to center fielder Adam Duvall on a first-pitch slider down in the zone. The 25-year-old Carpenter has emphasized plate discipline and pitch recognition in his cage-work this season, particularly reading fastballs and adjusting to offspeed pitches.
“Honestly, that first at-bat I was kind of just looking for a slider,” Carpenter said. “But the second at-bat, I was more just taking the at-bat for what it was, and on the heater looking for the slider to start at me. Both the sliders he threw me [in] that at-bat started at me, and he just left that one up, so I was able to hold back.”
In that next at-bat, Carpenter deposited a middle-inside slider over Boston’s bullpen for a 434-foot homer, the longest of his career.
Over his past seven games, Carpenter is slashing .481/.517/.778 with two homers and four RBIs. Though he’s had far more at-bats against righties (206) than lefties (39) this season, his splits (.282 average vs. right-handed pitchers compared to .256 vs. left) suggest that Carpenter can rise to the challenge.
“He’s obviously a big part of the middle part of our lineup,” Hinch said. “His at-bats are getting more consistent, he’s hanging in there against different style pitchers now, some lefties.
“Where he’s put up some tough at-bats, he’s still a young hitter learning. And we’re trying to continue to give him more and more challenges, and he’s answering. I think he’s prepared, I think his bat-to-ball skills are starting to show, power is real. We love having him in the middle of the order.”
On the other side of the ball, Skubal surrendered his first home run of the season on an 87.9 mph slider that lefty Triston Casas sent into Boston’s bullpen to put the Red Sox up 3-0 in the fourth inning. It was just the third homer Skubal has given up to a left-handed hitter in his career.
“Obviously, you want that one back,” said Skubal, who struck out three in 5 1/3 innings. “But that’s just the nature of the game. I didn’t execute a pitch. The strike-to-strike slider middle-in to a lefty is kind of not where you want to throw it. That’s what they’re supposed to do with it. Pitch execution in that count wasn’t great.
“It’s going to be weird to say, but it was fun to go out there and compete like that and just keep going at guys. … That’s really why you play the game. I’m not going to hang my hat on the stat line, I’m not going to let that define what I did out there today.”