Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene on AL wild-card chase: 'Having a lot of fun'
BALTIMORE — Is any team having more fun than the Detroit Tigers?
Nobody celebrated in the clubhouse after Friday's 7-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, which decreased the odds of making the postseason. But don't let that take away from the fact that the Tigers have won 25 of their past 36 games.
Winning creates good vibes.
"It's definitely fun," said left fielder Riley Greene, an All-Star for the first time in his third season. "We're having a blast. This is the most fun I've had playing baseball, I think in my life. I would say that's what super-special to me about it, having fun. We're having a lot of fun."
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The Tigers (80-74) trail the Minnesota Twins by one game for the third and final spot in the American League wild-card race, but because the head-to-head tiebreaker belongs to the Twins, the Tigers need to win two more games than the Twins over their final eight games.
After Friday's results, the Tigers have a 26.5% chance to make the postseason, according to FanGraphs, down roughly 19%.
"It feels different, but we can get caught up in it," Greene said. "We got to keep playing free. We got to keep playing our version of baseball. We got to focus on ourselves. We can't focus on what other teams are doing because it doesn't matter. It matters what we do."
People have been texting Greene about the wild-card standings.
The 23-year-old always responds the same way.
"Got to win tomorrow," Greene said. "Can't get ahead of ourselves. We just have to focus on today."
The Tigers, even with Friday's loss, own the best record in MLB since Aug. 11, at 25-11, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, at 24-13.
They also have the fifth-best record since the beginning of September, at 11-6. During the 17-game stretch, the Tigers put together a pair of four-game winning streaks — Sept. 7-11 and, most recently, Sunday-Wednesday.
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The pitching staff has anchored the success over the past 40 days with MLB's best ERA in that span, but Greene — hitting .260 with 24 homers across 129 games — has led the way on offense for most of September.
Greene hit .327 with four home runs, five walks and 13 strikeouts in his first 13 games in September, but in his last four games, he is hitting just .118 with one homer, two walks and seven strikeouts.
He is always one swing away from another hot streak.
"It's cool to be able to do it with these guys, as young as we are," said Greene, who played for the 96-loss Tigers in 2022 and the 84-loss Tigers in 2023. "Just to go out there knowing that the guy behind me has got my back and my teammates got my back. It's fun."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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