Spencer Torkelson has chance to match some Detroit Tigers history on Sunday

Cincinnati — Spencer Torkelson spent the first four weeks of the season answering questions about when he’s going to hit a home run.

He’s spent the last week being asked if he’s ever going to stop hitting them.

“Soon as you feel it once, I mean, the brain is crazy,” Torkelson said. “It likes to repeat it.”

The Tigers' Spencer Torkelson has hit a home run in each of his last four games entering Sunday.

Torkelson homered for the fourth straight game Saturday, walloping a first-pitch sinker from right-hander Brady Singer and sending it into the seats in right-center.

The last Tigers hitter to homer in four straight games was Ian Kinsler in May of 2016.

“It feels really good,” Torkelson said. “I just stuck with it and trusted it and it’s definitely paid off these last few days. Still have to keep doing it, though.”

He’s got a chance Sunday to match the franchise record of five straight games with a homer. That would put him in some pretty elite company. Here’s the list of Tigers who have done it:

▶ Rudy York, 1937

▶ Hank Greenberg, 1940

▶ Vic Wertz, 1950

▶ Willie Horton, 1969

▶ Marcus Thames, 2008

That Torkelson’s homer off Singer on Saturday came on a first pitch is poignant. He had been 0 for 16 when he swung at the first pitch this season. He’d only put two balls in play. One of the presumed issues during his early power outage was that he was being too passive at the plate.