This has been a pretty miserable season for Tigers outfielder Matt Vierling. He suffered a shoulder injury in spring training, tried to come back but was never really right when he did, and went back out with the shoulder injury. Heading into Friday’s game against the Angels, Vierling was batting .224 with a .561 OPS. He had played only 29 games, and had not homered, after knocking 16 homers last year.
With one swing, all that changed, and perhaps, the trajectory of this Tigers season changed, too.
Vierling came on as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Tigers trailing, 5-3 to the Angels at home, their run of 16 losses in their last 23 games about to turn into 17 losses in 24.
But manager AJ Hinch called on Vierling to pinch-hit for Kerry Carpenter against Reid Detmers of the Angels. And Vierling delivered a three-run home run that pulled the game out of the fire and helped the Tigers maintain their increasingly tenuous 6.0-game lead over Cleveland.
Tigers Get ‘Biggest Moment of the Season’
As the Detroit Free Press wrote of the at-bat, “Not only did Vierling’s home run feel like the biggest moment of the season, considering the Tigers entered Friday needing a spark after losing 16 of 23 games, but it also marked the first homer from Vierling this season, spanning 30 games.
Vierling’s batting average went up nine points to .233 with the one swing. His OPS leapt 51 points.
“Maybe Friday night fireworks had something to do with that,” he said, via The Athletic. “Maybe what we’ve been going through. But just to get that win and get the boys fired up was huge. It felt like we needed it really, really bad, just the whole vibe and everything.”
Matt Vierling Handles Fastballs
It was an impressive bit of managing from AJ Hinch, who downplayed the impact of the win–the Tigers need to string together multiple wins, of course.
He chose to pinch-hit Vierling over Andy Ibanez, seeing Vierling as the better fastball hitter.
“There are some things that we like about velocity and Matty,” Hinch said. “There are two parts of that. The offensive side, but you still have the defensive side of the game as well. Matty being able to go directly into the outfield also has a small portion of that.”
Hinch knows the Tigers need to keep this going.
“When we’re good, it’s him tonight, it’s somebody different tomorrow, somebody different the third game,” Hinch said, “and we look up and we win a lot of series. That’s how our offense functions. Tonight, it happened to be Matt.”
Tigers Pick Up Skubal
But Vierling does feel that the win on Friday can boost the Tigers over the last stretch of the season, as they protect their AL Central lead and hope for playoff momentum. Important, too, is the fact that ace Tarik Skubal struggled (four runs in 4.2 innings, two homers allowed), and the Tigers still got the win.
“I think big, comeback wins like this are momentum shifters,” Vierling said. “I obviously don’t want to say what the future holds. But I think to get that win tonight, to pick up Skub after he’s probably picked us up 30 times in the past couple of years, was huge for us. Just to see everybody in such a happy, good mood and just fired up, hopefully it leads to something.”
Tigers’ Hinch Explains Decision as Struggling Star Delivers ‘Biggest Moment’