Sergio Alcántara hit nine home runs in 2,611 Minor League plate appearances. He needed just two pitches Sunday for his first Major League homer.
¡°I fainted,¡± Tigers bench coach and acting manager Lloyd McClendon said when asked for his dugout reaction. ¡°When I woke up, he was in the dugout.¡±
His Tigers teammate, Grayson Greiner, has four hits since Aug. 19. Three of them are home runs, including a go-ahead loft just out of Eddie Rosario¡¯s grasp over the left-field fence at Target Field that fueled a three-run eighth inning for a 10-8 win on Sunday.
Thus, on an afternoon when top pitching prospect Casey Mize¡¯s search for his first Major League victory continued through four innings against a Twins lineup that made him labor again, youth was still served. Former Tigers starting prospect Kyle Funkhouser¡¯s transition to hard-throwing late-inning reliever culminated in his first Major League win, capped by Bryan Garcia¡¯s first big league save.
¡°Obviously, when I originally thought about my first win, I thought I'd be a starter and it would go a little bit differently,¡± said Funkhouser, a former first-round Draft pick. ¡°But hey, I'm glad to be here, glad to get that first win and glad to be improving and just pitching well and giving the team a chance.¡±
For the first half of the game, the Twins looked like they would grind through a tired Tigers pitching staff and run away with an early lead. Minnesota worked Mize for 83 pitches over four-plus innings, shrugging off a splitter that had been Mize¡¯s wipeout pitch. Three more fifth-inning runs off Rony Garcia built a 6-2 Twins lead.
At that point, McClendon -- filling in while manager Ron Gardenhire battles a stomach bug -- was thinking about how to fill innings as much as how to erase the deficit.
¡°That was probably my thought process: We have to make sure that we get through this game,¡± McClendon said. ¡°If we get a chance to win it, that would be great. But with the number of guys that were out today, obviously, it was a little tedious.¡±
The mentality in the dugout stayed upbeat.
¡°It does say a lot about the guys in that dugout,¡± Greiner said. ¡°We were down 6-2, but nobody was hanging their head in the dugout. I thought that was a big reason we continued to chip away.¡±
In the bullpen, Funkhouser was wondering aloud who would get their shot at a win.
¡°The bullpen guys, it's sometimes kinda tough,¡± he said. ¡°You need runs at the right time and kind of need things to line up your way a little bit [to get a win]. But just the way the game was going, 6-2, I was telling Garcia, 'Man, we're going to get some runs. It's going to be one of us, one of the younger guys.'"
Detroit¡¯s lone bright spot then was Alc¨¢ntara¡¯s third-inning homer off a 1-0 pitch from 40-year-old Twins starter Rich Hill. The drive to left made Alc¨¢ntara the eighth Tiger ever to homer in his first big league at-bat, the first since pitcher Daniel Norris at Wrigley Field in 2015, and the first Tigers position player since Reggie Sanders in 1974.
Willi Castro¡¯s two-run homer in the sixth inning started Detroit¡¯s rally, then his seventh-inning RBI single tied the game. With Gregory Soto, Buck Farmer and Jose Cisnero all on rest, on came Funkhouser, who was in line to join Detroit¡¯s rotation last summer until injuries stalled his season.
Funkhouser made the Opening Day roster as an innings-eater but has found bigger situations with a velocity jump. He used a 97-mph fastball to fan pinch-hitter Josh Donaldson before stranding the go-ahead run on second base in the seventh.
¡°It seems like when he was a starter, he would try to get a feel for his pitches early and not really let it eat [at full velocity] right away,¡± Greiner said. ¡°Now he's letting it eat. He's in the 95-97 [mph] range with a lot of sink.¡±
Once Greiner¡¯s wall-scraper, Jonathan Schoop¡¯s RBI triple and Miguel Cabrera¡¯s RBI single moved the Tigers in front, Funkhouser stayed on for the eighth, shrugging off a Rosario solo homer to hold the lead.
Garcia, a former Stopper of the Year award-winner at the University of Miami, has been viewed as a potential closer ever since Detroit drafted him in 2016. With the bullpen depleted, Garcia got his chance, pitching around a leadoff single to leave the potential tying run at the plate.
Funkhouser, Garcia and Alc¨¢ntara all received clubhouse celebrations afterward. They¡¯ll have to divvy up mementos.
¡°Trying to get the lineup card authenticated, but with Garcia getting his first save, we might have to fight over it,¡± Funkhouser said. ¡°It's a great feeling. Wins and losses are a little bit overshadowed now, but I'm just happy we won the game more than anything, happy I threw the ball pretty well again, and just try to build off it.¡±