HOT STREAK: Detroit Tigers Win as Riley Greene DOMINATES, Kevin McGonigle Homers + GM Update

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by the Dell XPS. I'm Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA Daily and Lockdown Heat. So what does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XPS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. And with long lasting battery life, it feels like non-stop energy with a laptop that can keep up. Built for those who want better, the Dell XPS. Built for you. Off the field there is a flurry of updates for the Tigers and on the field, Ryder Green states hot and propels the team to victory. You are Lockdown Tigers. Your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every

1:06day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Lockdown Tigers. I'm of course your host, Scott Bentley. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers. Your first listen every single day we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts. And that is of course, including you too, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. Today's episode brought to you by Fandall. $350 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet $5 every day for seven days. Join all the action at Fandall.com. Welcome in everyone. Today, a fine Tuesday episode for you. After the Detroit Tigers win five to four over the Minnesota twins. The Tigers are now 66 and 78 as the twins fall to 68 and 76.

2:11I actually have written down 86, but that's not possible. Fat thumbs strike again. Actually fingers. Anyway, this is a good win. I mean, it's fine. I think this is a game in which a, Ryder Green stays hot as we've already mentioned. I'll probably mention a few other times. B, you had a mechanical homer. That's always a good thing. Melton will talk about his start a little bit later, maybe not the best outing in the world, but you know, kept them in it gets the win. No less. Some bullpen stuff to talk about, etc, etc, etc. But this is, these types of wins for a team that is so now and it's current iteration form. So young and inexperienced is are always a good thing. And even if you know, Ryder Green's driving in three of the five runs and you know, what not. I mean, it's still right.

3:11Like you know, the mechanical homer, that's always good. You're still getting some, some young arms, some experience on the mound as well. It's just important to win ball games. Like it, I know that there is the, this is kind of like the main part of my first thought. I know there's always a contingency out there of fans that once you're out of it, it's just lose as much as possible, right? Just tank and get the highest draft pick, you know, possible, etc. I understand that in some sports. I also don't think all sports are the same. And baseball is one in which I do not, I mean, unless you're already in the running for like the number one overall pick or something. And it's, you know, you win a couple of other teams with a few weeks left like Dench shirt. You can root for losses and try to just get one one. But baseball is, is so difficult to develop players in and so difficult to project. The highest first round, bus rate of any sport.

4:11And certainly the highest bus rate on number one overall picks when compared to any other sport, at least in, you know, modern age of technology and whatnot. It's just, I think for where the tigers are at right now, if you're thinking about what the future of the, the next, you know, handful of years, however much, whatever, of the Detroit tigers and what tigers baseball looks like, I think it's more beneficial for them to win and learn how to win. Even if it is these meaningless games in September that aren't going to matter and they're not even going to be 500 by the end of the season. But it is for them to just quote unquote intentionally lose games and kind of throw in the towel. And what? Like raise your odds on draft pick from like 15 to 11, like or whatever, 10 to 6. You know what I mean? Like it's, you're talking about marginal differences at the end of the day.

5:13I think for me, it's just important to focus on what these young players, because it is a very young team right now are doing to get better every day. And wins like this kind of help highlight those things. We'll start with Riley Green, not necessarily a part of that, you know, like six rookies in the lineup or whatever, but still a pretty young player. Despite having made three consecutive all-star games, he goes three for four with two RBI, another big home run. This one also off of a lefty. I mean, his numbers against lefties have skyrocketed. Just over the last week or so. When he is right and he is hot and on time, I mean, I genuinely believe there are few hitters in the American league that you would rather have in your lineup. And that is certainly a testament to a lot of things. I think from a team perspective, it highlights the offensive struggles that the Tigers

6:14have had in whatever couple of weeks that Riley Green was hurt in. I think the next step for him, and this is not new. This has been the next step for Riley Green for two calendar years now. So, this isn't me saying that this is going to happen. It's just if he ever wants to take that next step into that superstar status that a lot of people thought he had the potential to reach when he was coming up through the Tiger system. He starts an end with consistency. It starts an ends with him not having a month stretch where he has a K rate of 35 to 40% and hits 190. And he's made a lot of adjustments this year that have helped. He has been objectively much better this season than he was last season. I think that there is still a long way to go. And that, again, in my eyes, starts with leveling that a little bit.

7:17There's always peaks and valleys in a baseball season, right? There's nobody that's just like this is exactly my stat line every single month all year. But Green has always been very dramatic and violent with his peaks and valleys. He's a really good player and clearly has the ability to be a great player. He's just got to make sure as he himself said after this game, he's got to be on time all the time. Around the horn offensively Max Clark gets on base twice. Always a good sign to see that Zach McKinstree with a triple. I think we're probably nearing the end of the Zach McKinstree experience here in Detroit. We'll talk about that a little bit later, but he's been slumping hard lately. So I always want to see everybody in a Tigers uniform and on a high note here for the rest of the season, a Glaver Torres with a knock as well.

8:18I think the other big talking point for me is Kevin McGonagall offensively at least the home run in the first inning. It was only hit on the day, but it's still a big takeaway for me. We have talked a lot about the lack of hard hit balls and slug with McGonagall over the last month. And I would just a power surge to end this is one home run. I'm not saying that's what's happening, but if we were to get a power surge to end the season, that sure would tickle my fancy. I would be very, very pro seeing him even if it's just for like two or three weeks. Man, just end in the year on a nice little power kick to show that there's still adjustments being made and he's still getting better and whatnot. I think that that would put a lot of the fan bases mind maybe at ease. And I do not worry about Kevin McGonagall long term. He is going to be a sensational player on this team for a long time, but that's kind of

9:23his next step. So if we were to see a peak of that even a temporary just little glimpse of that at some point this year before game 162, that would be that would be just swell. Last thing that went right in this game for me is infield defense and there was a couple of miscuses we'll talk about and what went wrong, but there was a lot of double plays turn in this game. I think you had to turn a lot of them in this one to be able to I mean, one run win, right? Obviously, the margin of error is pretty thin there, but everybody that took the mount was just seemed like everybody almost every inning had to have a double play in it at some point, the kind of squeak out of it. So none of them were like muffed or punted or a complete disaster. So good on the infield defense for being able to go around the horn and keep that going. Okay, let's talk about what went wrong. I want to talk Troy Melton a little bit. I want to talk bullpen, a smidge, and then a couple of offensive players that maybe

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11:30dollar you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Shop bag to school in Amazon and spend less on your kids. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Second to lock down Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. Making us your first listen every single day. Shots that every day is the due tune in every day. We will, of course, be back tomorrow recapping another ball game. Hopefully another win. Let's have a nice little series victory against the division opponent there. I think that would go a long way. Today we talk about this five to four victory over the Minnesota twins at Comerica Park on a beautiful Monday Labor Day afternoon. I hope everyone had a great safe holiday. Troy Melton in this game, five and two thirds, seven hits, four earned runs, one walk, three strikeouts in a home run against. ZRA is now two four two on the season. This outing really felt like kind of the epitome of what I have been talking about with

12:31Melton for a while now. And that is that he does a lot of things right still. And there's a reason why his numbers even after maybe a slow stretch here of about a month still look the way they do. He pounds the zone. That's great. He gets chase, right? He can get hitters to expand the zone and he can get some big swing and miss when he expands the zone. The curveball in this game, I think had three whiffs on its own. And it was one of his least thrown pitches, right? He has the ability to do that. He has the stuff to do that. He also pounded the zone and got some double plays as we've already talked about. That's great. That's something he's also always been good at is when the opportunity presents itself, he can get weak contact and get an in play out when he needs to be more efficient. All of that is great. He is a good pitcher. Still a good pitcher. We're talking about a guy that just gave up four runs and you know, there's people online

13:32that are acting like the world is ending. It's like, well, you only have that reaction because of the expectation and the standard that he set for himself. He's got a sub two five, even with the last month of games included on the season. The thing for me and if you listen every day, you know what I'm about to say is lack of swing and miss in the zone. He can get the chase and he can get the swing and miss out of the zone. But for as much as he is in the strike zone, you need more whiffs within it, right? There's a lot of guys that kind of personify this one that I always go to is Blake Snell. Blake Snell doesn't allow hits. He allows walks and he strikes people out. And so that is kind of like the extreme opposite example where it's like, and like Blake Snell can get people to chase out of his own too. Don't get me wrong. He's a two time, say young winner. Like he is kind of the perfect example of yes, he allows base runners, but every one of

14:37his pitches in every location can get a width. Melton can get the chase swing and miss. But in the zone, it usually ends up being ball put in play. And you look at the results in this game, even the sinker that he had a whiff on in this game. There's a low and away and sunk, right? It moved out of his own cutter. I think the cutter might have been the only in the zone with he had curve balls out of the zone, change ups out of the zone, right? Good to have important to have great to have. He's talented. But those things are still allowing contact when he is in the box. And that's just something that needs to work on long term take kind of that next step and kind of neutralize what's been happening over the last month or so. He has the stuff for it. I'm not worried about it. He has the ability to do it consistently, I think. Another key point in this game is the curve ball was way up in velocity as well, which

15:39is now him and Joe, kind of seeing that curve ball influx or spike in Velo. And it got chases and whiffs today and was really effective. I wonder if him and Joe made like the same adjustment because both of them have seen a huge uptick magically in velocity for the curve ball late in the season. Ultimately, again, really not a bad day at the office. He was in an out-of-way and got hairy at the end there. He kind of faded off into the end and then he got up to his patented kind of slow start in the first few batters of the game, but still a solid outing and he still got the win. Okay. What went wrong? Really reliever on here is Tyler Kinley. The dude has had some command issues, I would say, since joining the Tigers. Not that he has crazy high-walk rates or anything like that, but he's had a couple of games with multiple walks. He's plunked a couple of guys. This kind of seems to be spraying the ball a little bit. I'm not really sure what the prospect is on him returning in 2027, but as I've made

16:42very clear, I'm down to just kind of see what you have in some of these guys. He, you know, being in mid-season acquisition, clearly they liked him for a reason. So he kind of falls under that umbrella. Defense in the first inning, I thought Max Clark got a poor read on that line drive to center field. I think he probably could have gotten that and I think a lot of people probably himself included knowing Clark. Not, I don't know Clark. Knowing how he speaks to the media and kind of what he's made his personality public at least over the years. So that was one and then the follow-up, like it didn't cost him any extra runs, thankfully, but like Peck should just go to first base there. And I have hindsight from my couch in my apartment and he doesn't write that's a bang, bang play, but using the hindsight that I had the luxury of having, you just go to first base, right? And like even a perfect throw there, I don't think it's the runner and those are the plays that you just kind of need to eat and take the out and try to get out of the inning

17:44sooner rather than later. I understand a young rookie trying to save a, you know, established MLB pitcher or run. That's great and all, but you gotta just take with the defense or what the offense rather gives you. Offensively kind of the last things I want to talk about here on what went wrong. Dylan Dingler, O for four with three strikeouts. His slide continues in a massive way. I think I speak for everybody when I say I would love to see him get hot again before season's end. And that's a very like overly simplified way of kind of putting that, but just given how good he was and how much he has struggled over the last month plus, even if it's just for like a week or two, just to get you to the off season, I would love to see him just snap out of it at some point in any capacity really would be nice. Cole Keith over to a two strikeouts.

18:45He did have an RBI technically on a hit by pitch in this game. So like that, I guess there you go, but I mean, there's a real chance this dude has an OPS under 700 and the year and we're going to have a very serious conversation about Cole Keith. This off season probably men over five with risk as a team as well, which is unfortunate and classic Tigers game in which they outslug their problems. It's very reminiscent of June where they get a win. They're terrible with clutch hitting. They barely hang on to a lead by a run, but hit enough homers to get themselves over the home. There you go. Okay, stuff. We got a lot of stuff to talk about. As I said, in the open of the show here, I want to start with Jeff Greenberg removing himself from the running of the Red Wings job. At least that's how the wording kind of came across in the many reports highlighting this. I know Elliott Freeman, who if you're not a hockey person is kind of like the Jeff Passon

19:49of the sport of hockey, the biggest hockey reporter in the world currently. He had said that Greenberg is no longer in the running and expresses desires to win or finish what he started with the Detroit Tigers. This doesn't really change anything from a Tigers perspective. Not because I'm glad he's here. I'm glad he's staying, whatever. I'm pro like this front office, not getting ripped apart necessarily. I know that some people probably disagree with that, but I'm not pro this front office. I don't want that to get taken out of context. We'll have a lot of these conversations in the winter. Don't worry. I think there's a lot that they need to improve on very quickly to be quite frank. But this isn't like Jeff Greenberg hate that I say that nothing's changed. It's just he was already here. So literally nothing has changed. It's the same personnel from the Tiger side of things.

20:54This is going to sound maybe really mean. It's awesome that he said he wants to finish what he started and all of that. I don't want this to come across as like a derogatory or insulting comment I'm about to make. Again, I'm fine with him staying. To me, that reads like someone who didn't get the Redwings job, wanted the Redwings job. And because both teams that he is working for and applying for under the same ownership group, the PR department was like, hey, you're not going to get the job. But we have a fun quote that's going to spin it to look like you're actually not a hero. That's too dramatic. But what will spin this to make it look like it was your call and everything's good and what not. That's a guess on my part. I'm again, an idiot in his apartment. But if he wanted to keep the Tiger's job that badly, he would have said so a month and

21:59a half ago when his name was in the ring. Also, the Redwings job is technically a promotion. Yes, they're both general managers, but there's no president of hockey operations on the Redwings organization. So he would be the one calling the shots. And his name has been in the mix for the better part of eight weeks. But now magically right at the end, when they're about to announce the higher, he no longer has interest and wants to stay with the Tigers. I'm going to go with he didn't get the job. They told him that because they wanted to, you know, be polite to someone that still works under the same ownership group as theirs. And they kind of spun it positively. There's nothing wrong with that either. Go ahead and spin it positively. Be happy about it. That's great. I'm just saying, I don't think that that's like 100% genuine. That's all. Regardless, probably thinking way too much about this. There you go. Jeff Greenberg stays with the Detroit Tigers. Got a few more things I want to talk about in stuff before we preview game two of this

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25:06Third and final, second of lockdown. Tigers, I appreciate you all tuning in as always. A few more things I want to talk about. One, Emmanuel DeHastus reportedly is suspended and no one knows why. This was on the transaction log. A lot of the beatwriters and the media members that get updates from the PR department and whatever. Someone did some digging and found that Emmanuel DeHastus on the transaction log, well, the transaction log itself for the team is actually public. That's just on the website that he was suspended. No one has said why. I'm not, I'm assuming someone has asked. I don't know that. I don't have the ability to ask, but like, I have zero clue. And it certainly makes an interesting storyline here at the end of the season. I have more questions than anything. I don't really have too much else to say or like update on other than I have no idea what's going on. And it might be something to monitor.

26:07I don't think he's back next year anyways for the Tigers, but this might be kind of a nail in the coffin situation if something happened and that is a real report. And he actually did get suspended. But we'll keep our fingers on the pulse there. Sears option to Toledo for Brent Herders return. We still haven't seen Herder pitch, which feels weird to call it like get him back up and call him back up and option Sears and then not have Herder pitch the first two days that he's back. But regardless, this is just another reason and a long list of reasons why wouldn't keep Kenley Janssen or honestly a handful of other guys in the pen around. I think it's more valuable to get Sears. And then we'll be experienced than anything else, especially then trying to get Kenley Janssen to, you know, limp to 500 saves in a Tigers uniform. I'm sure Sears will be back at some point as well. So I'm not going to like freak out about it too much. Toledo season is about to end. I think he's probably back for somebody at some point, but alas, you know, for now

27:13he returns to the minor leagues. I'm also, I am pro Brent Herder being on the MLB roster because I think at his best, he's been one of the Tigers best relievers when healthy. It's just he hasn't been healthy and he's had some command issues. So I'm okay with him trying to figure it out, but there's a handful of other guys that I would have Sears in the bullpen on, you know, over them. Last update here. Jack Flairty rehab assignment underway. I mean, sure, I guess we'll just see, we'll just see. I guess you kind of have to, got to see it through, you know, I guess, but there's no rush over here. I think ultimately like I'm fine with it just because he can just replace Drew Anderson and it's like whatever that that's that's chill. It's not like he's taking innings away from, you know, a young arm or anything like that, but it'll be interesting to see how he gets used and how many starts he has the rest of the day if he the rest of the way rather, if he is healthy over the next couple

28:17of weeks. I still think Verlander's going to get one start at Comerica before he hangs it up. So he kind of got some innings to shuffle around here, even though these games are meaningless at this point. Okay. Oh, minor league seasons are ending by the way. We'll do a like minor league recap kind of thing either on an off day or with the season not going into October that gives us a little bit more flexibility. I might just wait until the regular season ends at the major league level and just do, you know, minor league recaps along with major league recaps kind of all at the same time. But we'll play that one by here. Okay. Game two, Dean Kremmer against Drew Anderson. We just face Dean Kremmer like less than a week ago, I think like six, five, six days ago. So no preview. We'll just go win. He's got an ERA of almost six. The awesome. If you could hit him some good experience for some young bats, all the things I keep saying. Drew Anderson just keep doing what you're doing.

29:18He we've been in pretty much every game. He's got a sub three since being a starter after school was traded. So good for him. Yeah. We'll see. I think that. It would just be really nice to win a series against the team that absolutely walloped you last week. So that that's I'm sure is going to be a good feeling. Get some more playing time for these young guys and. We're going to start shift and focus the next year on this show. I want to make that clear too. And we'll obviously still talk about the games when they happen. But one of my favorite exercises that I have done every single year since I have taken over for this show, which is over five years now, which is wild. I say I'll love. Is I do a 2027 preview before the 2026 season ends and we'll be doing that is about the end of this week or next week with our off day. All right. I think next week.

30:19This may locked on tigers your first listen every single day shots of the every day is the due tune in every day. We will of course be back tomorrow. Peace and love going to therapy. Please don't forget you all then, baby. Go tigers.

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