Javier Báez hit a grand slam in the third inning Friday to spark the Detroit Tigers to a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez stepped out of the batter’s box, flipped his bat and turned toward the on-deck circle. He pointed toward a taunting fan and shouted. Amid the intense interaction, the ball cleared the wall in left-center field for a grand slam.
«Nothing bad. He was talking good trash», Báez said. «I turned back, and they were just laughing. So, it was competition stuff. As soon as I hit that ball, the first thing that came to my mind was all this other stuff that he was saying. It was pretty fun.»
Báez, signed to a six-year, $140 million contract this past offseason, is riding an eight-game hitting streak and a three-game home run streak. He single-handedly propelled the Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Friday’s series opener at Chase Field. Finally, Báez is clicking.
«He’s doing better at staying inside his zone where he can hit», manager A.J. Hinch said. «The good version of him is electric and magical, as they say, and we’re seeing firsthand how he can get very, very productive very fast. He’s a really good player. We signed a really good player. None of this surprises me.»
HAASE-HOLD NAME: Tigers’ Eric Haase thinks playing time is reason for underwhelming power production
IN THE BULLPEN: Tigers closer Gregory Soto is avoiding his slider in 2022. That’s a bad sign
STAYING FETT: Fetter removes name from consideration for Michigan baseball job
The grand slam traveled 459 feet, the longest home run by a Tiger this season and the team’s longest since Jeimer Candelario hit a 467-foot homer in July 2019. Báez crushed the ball — a curveball at the bottom of the strike zone in a 1-2 count from Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly — with a 111 mph exit velocity.
«The way they were pitching me today was really off the plate», Báez said. «I was looking for balls over the plate. On that breaking ball that I missed way away, I knew he was going to throw it away again. I went for it, but it was a middle-middle pitch. I saw it pretty good.»
It was Báez’s seventh home run this season and the seventh grand slam of his nine-year MLB career.
