Torkelson breaks homer drought as Tigers even series

Detroit – It was coming. He could feel it.

In his first at-bat, he hit a sizzler, 106.2 mph off his bat, right at the left fielder. Two innings later, with Riley Greene at second base following a double, Spencer Torkelson ignited a 2-1 sinker from right-hander Chad Patrick.

The ball left his bat on a line with an exit velocity of 106.4 and flew 400 feet over the bullpen in left-center. In his 88th plate appearance of the season, Torkelson notched his first home run of the season.

The ball ended up in the Little Caesars glove on the bullpen roof, but it caromed off a fan. No free pizza, but it flipped the game and sent the Tigers to a series-evening 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in front of 20,378 at Comerica Park Wednesday night.

It was an impressive recovery from the 12-4 drubbing the night before, with the Tigers matching the Brewers’ aggressiveness and crispness on both sides of the ball.

Case in point. Javier Baez singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, rookie Kevin McGonigle, who extended his on-base streak to 20 straight starts, engaged Patrick in a 10-pitch battle. McGonigle fell into a quick 0-2 hole, worked the count full and then fouled off four straight pitches.

Baez took off for second base on all four of them. On the 10th pitch, McGonigle drove a ball off the wall in right center. Baez, gassed from all the sprints to second, still managed to scamper all the way around to score.

Baez had ended the top of the fifth with one of his patented but never boring quick tags, as catcher Jake Rogers threw out Sal Frelick trying to steal second. Baez stood motionless as the throw was coming and then, at the last second, caught it and slapped the tag in one motion.

Kerry Carpenter capped the Tigers' scoring, launching his fifth home run into the right-field seats in the bottom of the eighth inning.