A few weeks ago, Riley Greene was stuck in one of those ruts. He still falls into them from time to time. He's still just 24 years old. After crushing the ball for the better part of two months, Greene went hitless and struck out seven times in nine at-bats. He decided it was time for a new walk-up song. Jake Rogers suggested Toby Keith's 'How Do You Like Me Now!?'
That afternoon at Comerica Park, Greene picked up two hits and drove in two runs to help the Tigers win a series against the Cubs. Kerry Carpenter smiled in the clubhouse afterward and said, "I kept telling him, he’s one at-bat away from the best stretch of his career. I think today may have started it."
"I hope so!" said Greene, a few lockers down.
Greene strikes the same upbeat tone every day. In 14 games since, well, changing his tune, he's hitting .418 with a 1.231 OPS, both fourth in the majors over that stretch. His 19 RBI are good for second. He cranked two homers last Friday. He went 3-for-4 on Sunday to help the Tigers salvage their series against the Rays. He went 4-for-5 in Tuesday's series opener against the A's, swatting a couple singles to left, ripping a double to center and yanking a bases-loaded single to right off a lefty. It is indeed the best stretch of his career.
How do you like him now?
"He’s on a heater," A.J. Hinch said Tuesday after the Tigers' 11-4 win. "It’s fun to watch him when he’s hitting to all fields. He’s hitting for power, he’s hitting in big spots, and I love that he’s letting the game come to him a little bit more. Now, that’s a little bit easier when you’re piling up the success that he’s piled up in the last few weeks, but it coincides with getting good pitches to hit, getting into good counts and not trying to do too much.
"It’s amazing in this sport, for guys like him, not trying to do much actually has you do a lot of things well."
Greene is well on his way to second straight All-Star Game, and likely his first start. He trails only Aaron Judge in voting among AL outfielders. He's hitting .299 with an .890 OPS on the season. He's third in the AL in RBI, fourth in extra-base hits. By the measure of fWAR, he's been the best position player on the best team in baseball and a top-20 player in the bigs. Greene doesn't know this. He prefers it that way.
"I never look at my stats," he said Wednesday afternoon. "Stats are cool and all, I get it, but I’m here to help this team win. And I feel like once you start looking at stats every day, you kind of get away from being that team guy."
Of course, the 15,000-square foot video board at Comerica Park, the second largest in baseball, that displays Greene's numbers each time he comes to the plate can be hard to ignore: "Yeah, I mean, sometimes you just look up and see it, but you just focus on what you can do to help the team win that night," he said.
"I’ll check my stats at the end of the year," he said.
This is what year-over-year growth looks like in the big leagues: Greene's OPS was .692 in year one, .796 in year two, .827 in year three and now .890 in year four. He checks in at .962 since enduring an 0-for-23 slide in April, which is a reminder that, yes, Greene will slump again at some point this season. He will strike out a lot when he does; his 100 strikeouts are the most in the AL. The whiffs and cold spells are a relatively small trade-off for one of the most lethal young bats in the game.
Greene doesn't obsess over stats partly because it helps him keep his head through the highs and lows of a long season: "We know when we’re 0-for-30 and we’re hitting .100. And we know when we’re hitting good. Swing wise, it’s a feel thing. There’s no number out there (if you're slumping) that’s going to help you fix your swing." One statistic that he does value -- maybe the only one -- is the same one that he's been focused on since high school: QAB's.
"Our hitting coaches keep track of the quality at-bats," said Greene. "They’re like, 'Hey, try to get two or three a night.'"
The definition of a quality at-bat varies, but you generally know it when you see one: "Like, if you draw a walk, if you see seven or eight pitches, if you hit a double, if you hit a ball over 95 miles an hour," said Greene. Lately, he's been doing that -- all of that -- a lot.
He'd just rather not hear about it.
"I’m not really focused on myself," he said. "I’m focused on helping this team win. And whatever I can do every single night, I’m gonna do."