Photo by Andy Bettcher- Getty Images
Jason Beck @beckjason– MLB.com
DETROIT — The Tigers welcomed Andy Ibáñez back from the injured list Tuesday by optioning recent callup Buddy Kennedy, and were immediately rewarded with two hits, two runs and a diving catch from Ibáñez in an 11-6 win to salvage a doubleheader split against the Cardinals. Their move to open a spot for Gio Urshela’s eventual return could be tougher, because Wenceel Pérez shows no sign of going anywhere.
The way Pérez keeps hitting, even getting him out of the lineup seems unlikely anytime soon.
“If you look at the quality of at-bat and you combine the numbers with what you see, he deserves opportunity, [batting] both ways,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Doesn’t mean he’s always going to get it; we’ll mix and match the way we do. But I like the quality of at-bat. I know regardless of whether it’s working out perfectly for him every time, he’s in the at-bat, he’s competitive, he generally swings at good pitches. There’s some energy around Wenceel and we want more of it.”
Not since Raul Casanova on June 6, 1996 had a Tigers rookie homered from both sides of the plate; Casanova did it at Baltimore in just his ninth MLB game. No Tiger of any experience level had done it since 39-year-old Victor Martinez on Aug. 30, 2018 at Yankee Stadium.
https://stories.mlb.com/live/746481.html#visibilityState=prerender&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com&showStoryUrlInfo=0&storyPlayer=v0&cap=swipe
Pérez has 34 homers over seven Minor League seasons, and his previous time homering from both sides of the plate came against teammates in a Rookie league game between the Tigers’ two affiliates in Lakeland.
But Pérez continues to hit, and play, with confidence, aggressiveness and enthusiasm. And when he rounds the bases, as he has done three times in as many games, his joy is unmistakable.
“Seeing his smile coming around the bases is awesome,” teammate Riley Greene said. “It brightens everyone’s day, really.”
Pérez helped the Tigers not only bounce back from a disappointing 2-1 loss in Tuesday’s opener, his go-ahead homer helped them bounce back from a blown lead in the fifth inning of the nightcap.
• Flaherty ties AL record by striking out first 7 batters in first start vs. Cards
“That is the game; sometimes we fail,” Pérez said. “But it says something, how we came back.”
After the Cardinals used a two-run ninth off Shelby Miller to win the opener, the Tigers seemed headed for a similar fate when Alec Burleson greeted Tyler Holton with a three-run homer as a part of a five-run fifth inning that erased what had been a 4-0 Detroit lead. The Tigers answered in the bottom half with a Spencer Torkelson double and a Jake Rogers RBI groundout, but the key was Pérez, whose solo homer from the right side three innings earlier helped build the early lead off lefty Steven Matz.
Pérez, batting left-handed against Ryan Fernandez, crushed a slider and sent it deep into the right-field seats.
“It feels great,” Pérez said. “When I hit it, I knew it was gone.”
Between the homers, Pérez was still a spark, challenging Cardinals left fielder Brendan Donovan by trying to stretch a line drive into a double. He barreled into second base and was initially ruled safe, but replay review overturned the call.
Apr 30, 2024
·
0:33
Wenceel Pérez out at second base after review
The vast majority of Pérez’s power comes from the left side of the plate, including all nine of his homers in the Tigers system last year, and 12 of his 14 the year before. Some of that is the natural result of facing more right-handed pitching over the course of a season. Some of that is rust.
Pérez said he has worked on his right-handed swing in pregame work to stay ready. It’s actually his natural swing; he said he learned to hit left-handed at age six or seven when his coach told him he was too short to make it as just a right-handed hitter.
“I think [my approaches] are all the same [from both sides]: I want to see the ball and hit the ball,” Pérez said.
So far, it’s working. While fellow rookies Colt Keith and Parker Meadows have battled slow starts, Pérez is on the opposite end. He has become a near-regular in what was already a crowded outfield.
“He’s really talented, and we’ve known that, but he’s got to do it when given the opportunity, and he’s putting up really good at-bats,” Hinch said. “I’m proud of him because he’s not overdramatizing, not taking it too seriously. He’s not trying to do too much, and yet he’s doing more and more every day. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for him, but also, he’s having a lot of fun.”