Is Breakout Finally Coming for Detroit Tigers Star Riley Greene?

The Detroit Tigers entered Monday's action with the best record in the American League. Their viability is going to be tested on their 10-game road trip, one that began Monday against the Houston Astros , a team that likely wants to get some semblance of revenge after the Tigers ended their record seven straight ALCS appearances. Little things came back to hurt Detroit in a manner that hasn't been seen in a while.

The Tigers committed two errors, both by shortstop Trey Sweeney in the bottom of the seventh, that allowed the Astros to score four runs during that frame to break things wide open. It's one game, but this result is going to test a young Detroit squad and how they respond will be key. But the good thing that came from this contest was that Riley Greene looks like he is finding himself at the plate again.



Out of the five hits the Tigers mustered on Monday, two of them were longballs by the star slugger. He hit a solo shot 363 feet to left center in the fourth inning followed by a two-run blast in the bottom of the eighth that traveled 358 feet to left field. This effort brought Greene's numbers up to a .

234/.280/.441 slash line and OPS+ of 106.

While he has a ways to go if he's going to catch his output from last season, what he's done in the last seven days is encouraging with three homers, eight RBI, seven strikeouts compared to two walks in 29 plate appearances and an OPS of .940. Those numbers are comparable to what he did in 2024, a year where he made his first All-Star team and finished 33 points above the league average when it came to OPS+.

Greene's hard hit rate (45.2%) this season is one percentage point less than it was last year, while his barrel rate (12.3%) is 1.

1% lower compared to last campaign's figure. So while the results haven't been spectacular just yet, that doesn't mean they won't come. Greene just needed to find himself a bit in the batter's box, and his two home runs on Monday could be the turning point for him to get going.

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