Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene blasts leadoff home run in 2-1 loss to Cleveland Guardians

CLEVELAND — Riley Greene hit a leadoff home run.

But the Detroit Tigers lost again.

The Tigers couldn't build upon Greene's home run to open the first inning in Monday's 2-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in the first of three games at Progressive Field.

Greene has nine homers in 35 games this season.

"We did give ourselves a lot of opportunities, nine guys left on base," manager A.J. Hinch said. "We didn't get the big hit. We didn't really continue the inning, which is frustrating. Those are big at-bats. We came up empty."

The Tigers (18-17) dropped their fourth game in a row in their first matchup against the American League Central's first-place team. The Guardians countered with a run of their own in the bottom of the first inning, then snapped the tie with a solo home run in the sixth inning.

José Ramírez, a five-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger, put the Guardians ahead, 2-1, with his homer — his seventh of the season, and second in two days following an 0-for-19 skid — off right-hander Jack Flaherty's inside fastball in the sixth inning.

The ball clanked off the foul pole in right field.

"I hated the location of it," Flaherty said. "It's the one pitch I pulled all the way across the plate. It was supposed to be away. I pulled it in. The guy is one of the best hitters in the league, and you got to execute every pitch with him. I made one mistake to him, and he put a good swing on it."

A one-out double from Kerry Carpenter gave the Tigers a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh inning, facing right-handed reliever Hunter Gaddis.

Spencer Torkelson hit a weak dribbler down the third-base line. Ramírez, the third baseman, charged the ball and fielded the ball cleanly, only to pull the first baseman off the bag with a poor throw, though Torkelson was awarded a single. But Carpenter didn't advance to third base when Ramírez threw to first base, leaving the Tigers with runners on first and second base, rather than runners on the corners.

"It did look like he had a hard time reading with where the ball was with Ramírez," Hinch said. "If it's in the base line, he's going to need to stay. Ramírez came pretty far forward on the check swing, and it looked like we missed an opportunity there."

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Andy Ibáñez grounded into a force out, and Wenceel Pérez struck out swinging. Those outs stranded the runners and squandered the final scoring opportunity. Right-handed reliever Emmanuel Clase retired three Tigers in a row in the top of the ninth inning, including Greene on a groundout to end the game.

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The Tigers finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Jack Flaherty's six innings

Flaherty got beat by Ramírez in the sixth inning, but aside from that moment, the 28-year-old — coming off 14 strikeouts on the final day in April — dominated the Guardians for his second sharp performance in a row.

Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract in the offseason, gave up two runs on six hits and one walk with six strikeouts across six innings, throwing 101 pitches.

"Jack was pretty dialed in," Hinch said.

The Guardians answered Greene's leadoff homer with Estevan Florial's leadoff double in the bottom of the first inning. Flaherty recorded back-to-back outs before walking Josh Naylor to keep the first inning alive, and Will Brennan made Flaherty pay for that mistake by hitting a first-pitch, down-and-away curveball for an RBI single to right field, tying the game at one run apiece.

Carpenter — rather than trying to throw out Florial at home plate from right field, which would have been a reckless decision — cut down Naylor advancing to third base with a strong throw from the outfield, ending the inning.

"It doesn't change the plan of attack," Flaherty said of the Guardians' contact-oriented approach. "You just know where to get the contact, like where you want to locate things. You know they're going to put the ball in play. You know they're going to battle. It's going to be a tough lineup to punch out."

Flaherty generated 15 whiffs on 47 swings — a 31.9% whiff rate — with nine fastballs, five sliders and one curveball. His fastball averaged 94.4 mph.

In 2024, Flaherty has a 3.86 ERA with six walks and 56 strikeouts across 42 innings.

Left-handed reliever Joey Wentz, who owns a 0.68 ERA across 13⅓ innings, kept the Guardians from scoring in the seventh and eighth innings. He sent down six of the seven batters he faced, racking up four strikeouts.

Riley Greene's big swing

Not only did Greene launch a leadoff homer, but he ambushed the first pitch of the game, an inside 90 mph fastball from right-hander Triston McKenzie.

Greene hit the ball 424 feet with a 109.8 mph exit velocity.

"I'm always attacking first pitch," said Greene, who swings at a below-average 26.5% of first pitches, "because that could be the only pitch you get."

The next three batters struck out swinging: Mark Canha (fastball), Matt Vierling (curveball) and Carpenter (curveball). McKenzie allowed one run on three hits and three walks with six strikeouts across five innings, throwing 83 pitches.

The Tigers missed an opportunity to score in the fifth inning, only because of three bad calls from home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus on Canha with runners on the corners and one out. Three called strikes were questionable, and two of them were certainly outside of the strike zone.

Canha struck out looking on a seventh-pitch curveball at the top of the strike zone. After the strikeout, Canha expressed his displeasure by exchanging words with De Jesus at home plate before walking to the dugout.

Vierling, the next batter, produced a deep flyout to left field on a first-pitch, middle-middle slider for the third out in the fifth inning, but if Canha would've received a walk like he deserved, the flyout from Vierling would've been a sacrifice fly.

"I haven't seen the video from the front to see where they were," Hinch said. "It looked like borderline, both down and up. We had another opportunity after that, so that wasn't the only at-bat, but you have to do your part to focus on what you can control. Our guys complaining is usually for a reason."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Next up: Guardians

Matchup: Tigers (18-17) at Cleveland (23-12).

First pitch: 6:10 p.m. Tuesday; Progressive Field, Cleveland.

TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Probable pitchers: Tigers — RHP Kenta Maeda (1-1, 5.02 ERA); Guardians — LHP Logan Allen (3-2, 5.11).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene HR not enough in 2-1 loss in Cleveland