With a needed swing, Matt Vierling brings the gritty Tigers roaring back

New York Times

a day ago

DETROIT — When Matt Vierling stepped to the plate in the eighth inning Friday night, he had a grand total of zero home runs this season. His average was mired at .224.
Vierling had been stuck in the throes of struggle after missing nearly the entire first half, recovering from a shoulder injury. He came off the injured list only to aggravate the shoulder and head back to the shelf.
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Since his second return, he had looked rusty and, for lack of a better descriptor, simply off.
Vierling was a spark and life force on last year's Tigers team that made its mark with comeback wins, scabbed elbows and a flair for the dramatic.
But this year? Vierling's contributions were missing. A team that played out of its mind through 90-plus games was suddenly deep in the mud, losers of 16 of their past 23, playing at a below-.500 clip dating to June 3.
Their magic had vanished. Their bullpen had been imploding. Their hitters had been chasing and whiffing and slumping.
The propensity for comebacks and heroics? Nowhere to be found.
Then, trailing by two in the eighth inning against the Angels, Jahmai Jones and Gleyber Torres worked needed walks. Vierling entered as a pinch-hitter, partially a function of the Tigers' current construction that gives them an extra right-handed bat off the bench.
Facing Reid Detmers, Vierling worked a 3-1 count. Then he launched a 95 mph fastball high into the Detroit night, the ball looping over the playing field and crashing into the home bullpen.
Vierling's first home run of the year was a three-run, pinch-hit, go-ahead shot. Talk about a welcome back.
MATTY V pic.twitter.com/iaTnwqrdXc
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 9, 2025
On a rare off night from Tarik Skubal, rookie Troy Melton pitched well in relief, and trade-deadline acquisition Kyle Finnegan slammed the door. The Tigers won 6-5.
And, just maybe, they recaptured some swagger in the process.
'They all count the same,' manager A.J. Hinch said. 'But some do feel extra important.'
Vierling in particular had been waiting and working for a moment like this. For the past few weeks, he had been in the lab with the Tigers' hitting coaches, making slight adjustments. He said it took him about a month after his latest activation to feel normal. He was still waiting for the numbers to correct, taking base hits the other way, trusting a bigger knock would eventually come.
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'I wouldn't say I was pressing for it,' Vierling said. 'Obviously, you want to do it. But I wasn't trying to press.'
Friday, Vierling readied as soon as Angels starter Kyle Hendricks left the game after five innings. Hinch did not turn to his bench early, saving all his pinch-hit options for the late innings. In the eighth, he hit Jones for Colt Keith. And he hit Vierling rather than Andy Ibáñez for outfielder Kerry Carpenter, in part because Vierling could slide right into the outfield and in part because Hinch liked Vierling against Detmers' 95 mph-plus velocity.
'Matty has been grinding and trying to find his impact,' Hinch said. 'He can't make up for the first few months of being injured with one swing. But this can catapult him forward.'
In the clubhouse after the game, country music blared. On the field at Comerica Park, fireworks popped. Something about the energy felt restored.
Bigger than the average August victory?
'Yeah,' Vierling said. 'Maybe Friday night fireworks had something to do with that. Maybe what we've been going through. But just to get that win and get the boys fired up was huge. It felt like we needed it really, really bad, just the whole vibe and everything.'
Tough to know how much meaning to try to assign to this one moment. Not long ago, the Tigers won four straight. Players were growing mustaches and counting on improvements. The truth is this has been a tough stretch, one bad enough to threaten Detroit's larger body of work.
One swing does not absolve a bullpen construction that features Brenan Hanifee, he of a 3.10 ERA in 52 1/3 innings, oddly optioned to Triple A.
One good inning does not guarantee restorative power to a lineup that has too often failed to generate quality at-bats.
But if you wanted to feel the energy and the pulse return to downtown Detroit, Friday night under the lights, with a swing from a player like Vierling, was a good place to start.
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'I think big, comeback wins like this are momentum shifters,' Vierling said. 'I obviously don't want to say what the future holds. But I think to get that win tonight, to pick up Skub after he's probably picked us up 30 times in the past couple of years, was huge for us. Just to see everybody in such a happy, good mood and just fired up, hopefully it leads to something.'
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