DETROIT -- Five days after Miguel Cabrera hit his 500th career home run, the Tigers produced another historic homer at the Blue Jays¡¯ expense. This one might have had as much to do with a coach as a hitter.

Never in MLB¡¯s expansion era (since 1961) had a player hit an inside-the-park home run to pull his team in front in a pinch-hitting situation. Then Victor Reyes¡¯ sinking line drive bounced past Jays rookie center fielder Josh Palacios.

Reyes has played enough games in the vast outfield expanse of Comerica Park to know what that meant.

¡°This ballpark is pretty wide,¡± Reyes said through a translator after legging out the Tigers¡¯ 2-1 win. ¡°A lot of things can happen when the ball goes through the outfield.¡±

Tigers third-base coach Ramon Santiago was thinking of one of them as Reyes sped around second base in the eighth inning.

It wasn¡¯t what manager A.J. Hinch was looking for when he sent Reyes to the plate to hit for Zack Short leading off the eighth inning against Tim Mayza. He just wanted a runner on base. He got more than that.

¡°Incredible send by Santi,¡± Hinch said.

Santiago never hit an inside-the-park homer during his 13-year Major League career, which included 10 seasons in Detroit, but he has seen enough games here to know what happens when a ball gets by a diving outfielder and starts rolling. The out-of-town scoreboard is so deep in right-center field, it has been a graveyard for many would-be traditional homers. For a ball like Reyes¡¯ liner, it was a green light, and it might as well have been across the river in Canada.

¡°It¡¯s bold to understand how far that ball can go,¡± Hinch said. ¡°It¡¯s hard to see how far that ball went. Is it going to get to the wall? To the track?¡±

Right fielder Corey Dickerson finally tracked down the ball on the warning track before it could hit the wall, but Reyes was flying by then.

¡°I thought I was going to be able to have a triple,¡± Reyes said. ¡°But as soon as I was running towards third base, I saw Ramon Santiago waving at me and sending me home. So I ran as fast as I can.¡±

Santiago was Detroit¡¯s third-base coach last year under then-manager Ron Gardenhire. The Tigers liked him there, but he moved back to his previous role as first-base coach under Hinch, who opted for more experience with Chip Hale. Hinch loved Hale¡¯s aggressiveness, and wanted to use it to set a tone for the rest of his staff.

¡°To me, third-base coach is a huge spot,¡± Hinch explained last weekend. ¡°It¡¯s the only other coach that makes a decision on the field other than the manager.¡±

When Hale left at midseason to become head coach at the University of Arizona, Hinch wanted Santiago back at third, rather than bringing in somebody from outside.

¡°His fearlessness at third base, his feel, his guts, his awareness has all impressed me in the first few weeks on the job,¡± Hinch said, ¡°and that comfort level came back very quickly.¡±

Friday¡¯s emphatic wave was an example of all of that, and a microcosm of the Tigers¡¯ philosophy under Hinch. Reyes¡¯ hustle gave Santiago the option. Santiago¡¯s read and willingness to risk the cardinal sin of making the first out of the inning at home plate gave Reyes the chance.

¡°We always preach aggressiveness. It¡¯s what we do,¡± Hinch said. ¡°We want to risk something in order to get the benefit. And having missed on the opportunity [earlier], I thought it was an incredibly bold send ...

¡°The anticipation at the end of that play felt like it was going to take forever. We were just like, ¡®What¡¯s going to happen?'"

The depth of that outfield again became apparent as second baseman Marcus Semien waited for Dickerson¡¯s throw to bounce to him. Semien¡¯s throw home sailed to the backstop as Reyes slid headfirst into home plate.

¡°Very big credit for [Santiago],¡± said Reyes, who said his only other inside-the-park homer came in the Minor Leagues. ¡°He had the play right in front of me. He made the decision to send me home. He has all the credit for that.¡±

It ended up deciding what had been a pitching duel for six innings between Tigers rookie starter Matt Manning and Blue Jays lefty Steven Matz, who had given up Cabrera¡¯s 500th homer in Toronto five days earlier. Manning set a career high with five strikeouts, four of them to end innings with runners on base.

It was a game one swing could decide. Nobody figured on that kind of swing, or that kind of run.