Greene Homers Twice as Tigers Beat Guardians

Riley Greene hit two solo home runs, collected a season-high four hits, and drove in four runs as the Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-0 on Saturday night, per the Associated Press.

Detroit needed a night like this. The Tigers won for just the fifth time in 21 games since Aug. 14 and punched a hole in Cleveland's wild-card cushion.

Two solos, four hits, four RBI

Greene cleared the wall in left-center against Parker Messick (11-9) in the first and again in the sixth, staking Detroit to a 3-0 lead. He also singled home Gleyber Torres in the third and doubled Torres in again in the seventh. Those were Greene's first homers since Aug. 4 at Seattle and his second multi-homer game of the season.

Detroit piled on three more in the seventh against Matt Festa, including Ben Malgeri's single that scored Greene. The lineup finally looked like September traffic instead of August fog.

Messick struck out a career-high 12 over six innings and punched out the side twice, but he is 0-2 in three starts against Detroit this year. Strikeouts did not erase the two balls Greene parked.

Valdez deals, Guardians stuck

Framber Valdez (9-10) matched his longest outing of the year with seven innings, allowing three singles, striking out three, and walking one. Cleveland never pushed more than two runners past first base and finished with three hits against Valdez, Kyle Finnegan, and Beau Brieske. Valdez held the Guardians hitless after the second.

Cleveland remains in the third American League wild-card spot after sweeping Friday's doubleheader. Outfielder Chase DeLauter sat with a sprained right wrist that manager Stephen Vogt called day-to-day. Tigers rookies Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark also got the night off.

A 6-0 road blanking does not fix Detroit's August slide by itself, but Greene's first multi-homer night since early August and Valdez's length are how you climb back into the conversation. For more September board already on Smacktok, see Schwarber leading the Phillies and Aranda's Rays walk-off blast. Saturday in Cleveland belonged to Greene's two swings.