Tigers’ Riley Greene Accomplishes Feat No One In Baseball History Has Ever Done
Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene went up to plate in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels Friday night looking to break a 1-1 tie. He did just that…and then some.
In the top of the ninth, Riley was the first batter to face Kenley Jansen in the inning. He promptly took one of the best relievers in MLB history deep to give his team a lead.
Greene said afterward that he wasn’t so sure that dinger was actually going to clear the fence.
"I got it, but it didn't feel too good," he said of the first homer, according to MLB.com. "I got out of the box because I needed to get on second or third."
A blown save is bad enough for Jansen, but the inning just got worse. Two more home runs and three other runs followed before his night was done.
And then, the offense just kept coming for Detroit.
Before you knew it, it was 6-1 with two men on and two outs. So many Tigers batters had come to bat that Greene stepped up to the plate for the second time in the inning.
And the result was the same as his first trip.
Greene took Jake Eder deep, and in doing so became the first man in MLB history to hit two home runs in the ninth inning.
Talk about a night. Hitting the game-winner and doing something no one else had ever done? Incredible.
"I was just thinking, ‘Win the baseball game.’ That's about it," Greene said after the Tigers’ 9-1 victory. "That was the only thing on my mind: Let's win this game."
He sure did that, and then some.
Detroit improved to an AL-best 21-12, while Los Angeles fell to 12-19.