Riley Greene leads Tigers over White Sox with two-run single, spectacular catch

Chicago— Riley Greene walked through the dugout before the game just as his manager was about to start his pregame press briefing.

“Riley Greene,” AJ Hinch said. “You’re a great player.”

“Thank you,” said Greene, as he strode onto the field.

Greene was certainly a great player Friday night. He commandeered the fifth inning in the Tigers’ 4-2 win against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

BOX SCORE: Tigers 4, White Sox 2

With the Tigers trailing 1-0, Greene lashed a two-run, two-out single in the top of the fifth. Then he ended the bottom half of the inning with a spectacular diving catch in left-center, robbing Tim Anderson of extra bases.

"As a pitcher you have the best view of the ball," said Tigers lefty starter Eduardo Rodriguez, who delivered yet another quality start and remains unbeaten against the White Sox (4-0) in his career. "As soon as the ball got up I said, 'No chance is he going to make that play.' But man, he surprised me when he made that dive and made the play.

"That was something special to see."

He ran 71 feet into the gap, according to Statcast, covering 27.3 feet per second. Then without breaking stride, he caught the ball with a full-extension dive.

"He took a great angle and went 100% from the first step, which is the key," Hinch said. "He's a really good outfielder and putting him in a corner will make him even more dynamic. He knows exactly where (center fielder) Parker Meadows is and he knows where Parker isn't. And he's going to go 100% until he knows he can't catch it."

The catch effectively ended Greene's night, though. He landed hard on his elbow. He went into the clubhouse between innings. He played left field in the sixth but was removed for pinch-hitter Andre Lipcius, in the seventh.

"He dove and hit his elbow first on the turf," Hinch said. "As he extended he jammed his elbow. We took him out as a precaution. He came back in to hit and he was banged up. We wanted to get him checked out and start the treatment."

He was examined by the White Sox's team doctor.

"Things are pointing in a positive direction," Hinch said. "He's pretty frustrated because he wants to stay in the game. But he's day to day. He'll be off tomorrow just because of where we are in the season and because of how important he is.

"But I'm sure he'll be right next to me trying to pinch-hit."

The Tigers did a lot of little things extremely well in this ballgame. They banged out 11 hits, all singles. Catcher Jake Rogers had three hits and an RBI. Miguel Cabrera, with the Chicago crowd chanting, "Let's go Miggy," delivered a pair of hits.

His career total now is 3,154, tied for 17th all-time with Royals legend George Brett.

"We missed a huge opportunity early," Hinch said of the Tigers stranding the bases loaded in the first inning. "And we nearly missed the opportunity in the third. But Riley came through with the base hit and then everybody kind of exhaled a little bit and the at-bats got better."

The Tigers also stole three bases: Greene, Zach McKinstry (16) and Akil Baddoo. It’s the fourth time this season they’ve stolen three or more against the White Sox. They also created a run in the sixth when Spencer Torkelson bluffed off third base and drew an errant throw from shallow right field by second baseman Lenyn Sosa. Torkelson scampered home after the ball bounced free in the infield.

"We have to do all the little things right and we did tonight," said Rogers, whose RBI in the eighth came after Baddoo stole second. "It's always a fun baseball game when that happens."

There was a signed baseball in Rogers' locker after the game, congratulating him for throwing out Luis Robert Jr. trying to steal second base in the sixth inning. The inscription read, "Congratulations. First caught stealing in three months."

"It had been a little bit since I'd thrown someone out," Rogers said, smiling. "They were giving me crap. I looked into the dugout and they were asking for the ball. I was just laughing. All in fun."

Rogers hadn't thrown out a base stealer since June 14, a run of 23 straight successful swipes. So, he caught a win, got three knocks and threw out a runner?

"Good day," he said.

Rodriguez deftly picked his way through the White Sox lineup, allowing just one run in 6⅔ innings, despite not having the normal zip on his fastball.

The average velocity on his four-seamer was down nearly 2 mph (to 90.4 mph), but he was commanding it well and using the changeup as his primary secondary pitch against the seven right-handed hitters Chicago lined up against him.

"When you start pitching in the division, you have history with guys," Hinch said. "And he wasn't just going to challenge them with fastballs. Sometimes the less fastballs he throws, you can see the velo tick down. But he's trying to be move it around and pinpoint it. He didn't finish hitters as well as he normally does.

"But I told him when he got back in the dugout, to get through that game with these numbers with minimal damage was a very good outcome."

He ended up throwing 35 four-seamers and 31 changeups, getting six swinging strikes and a lot of soft contact. Eight balls were put in play against the changeup with a mild average exit velocity of 77.8 mph.

He had seven strikeouts, as well.

"I would never call it a grind," he said. "I call it a blessing to be able to pitch deep in the game and get us in position to get a win."

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @cmccosky