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Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene in lineup as leadoff hitter for first time since 2022 season
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- Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene in lineup as leadoff hitter for first time since 2022 season
Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene is batting leadoff for the first time since his 22nd birthday.
Before Friday's game, Greene hadn't hit at the top of the lineup since Sept. 28, 2022, against the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park. He played center field with Victor Reyes in left field and Willi Castro in right field — both are no longer in the organization.
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Batting leadoff doesn't change his approach.
"Hit me one, two, three, four, five, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth," Greene said. "I don't really care."
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Manager A.J. Hinch put Greene, now a 23-year-old corner outfielder, in the leadoff spot for Friday's series opener against the Minnesota Twins at Comerica Park, facing right-hander Pablo López . The All-Star pitcher finished seventh in American League Cy Young voting last season.
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Detroit Tigers left fielder Riley Greene (31) bats against Oakland Athletics during the eighth inning of the home opening day at Comerica Park in Detroit on Friday, April 5, 2024.
This season, López has a 2.84 ERA in two starts.
The Tigers want Greene to get as many plate appearances as possible.
"The decision at the top is who's going to get the most at-bats against any particular pitcher," Hinch said. "He's the leadoff guy one time, so it's the only time I'm guaranteed to get him up to bat. As I talked to Riley about it, I don't really want him to change a thing. He doesn't need to do anything other than get a good pitch to hit, hit it and hit it hard. He's done it before. It's not that big of a deal."
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Greene worked as the leadoff hitter in 76 of his 93 games in 2022.
For Friday's game, Hinch also managed to keep Mark Canha , an on-base machine showing some power despite the cold weather, in the No. 2 spot while stacking left-handed hitters Kerry Carpenter and Colt Keith in the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. Center fielder Parker Meadows , the primarily leadoff man with two hits (and seven walks) in 11 games, moved down to the No. 7 spot.
"I wanted to move Parker down and give him a breather from the top of the order," Hinch said. "So you kind of go process of elimination. I'm not going to bat him eighth, so Riley ends up being at the top. Who knows if it'll be every day, but he's going to hit in that top three or four spots when he plays."
In the 2023-24 seasons, the Tigers have used seven different players in the leadoff spot: Zach McKinstry (72 games), Matt Vierling (46), Akil Baddoo (27), Meadows (12), Nick Maton (10), Andy Ibáñez (3) and Zack Short (3). The leadoff list will feature eight players once Greene steps into the batter's box in Friday's first inning.
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Greene has a .235 batting average with one home run, eight walks and 25 strikeouts when he's the first batter of the game, all in 2022.
"To be honest, you're a leadoff guy for one at-bat," Greene said, "and it's the first one of the game. That's it. I'm not really going to change anything. I'm going to be aggressive and try to get a good pitch to hit. When I did hit leadoff a lot, it was like, Hey, you're not guaranteed a first-pitch heater down the middle. I'm going to stay on the heater and I'm going to look for it down the middle, but if it's something I can't hit, I'm going to take it."
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In the 2024 season, Greene is hitting .205 with three home runs, eight walks and nine strikeouts across 47 plate appearances in 11 games. He has a three-game hitting streak, seven hits in his past 24 at-bats and a .433 on-base percentage in his past seven games.
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Greene is ready as many plate appearances as he can get in Friday's game.
"Want the fifth," Greene said of his chances of a fifth trip to the plate. "That's actually a funny saying Mike Hessman would always tell us. Want the fifth, brother, because you're probably going to get it, and I got it a lot."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene leading off for first time since 2022
