Entering Saturday’s contest against the Royals, the Tigers ranked last in the majors with just two home runs over their last eight games. Exiting that game, well, they bumped up their total to just three, but that third homer was a doozy: a go-ahead grand slam from rookie left fielder Christin Stewart.
Stewart’s moment arrived in the seventh inning. Still up 4-2, the Royals had already started to let the game get away from them. Nicholas Castellanos singled in a run, Miguel Cabrera hit a liner out to left, and Kansas City’s Wily Peralta finished setting the table with a seven-pitch walk to Jeimer Candelario. Stewart saw four pitches from Peralta before finding a changeup he liked, which was promptly returned to the right field foul pole for his first-ever grand slam:
Per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, it’s been almost ten years since the Tigers have seen a rookie belt a go-ahead grand slam. The last to do it was outfielder Clete Thomas, whose eighth-inning home run put the Tigers up 9-5 over the Angels on June 7, 2009. (It’s been just nine years since a Tigers’ rookie hit any variety of grand slam, which was accomplished by right fielder Brennan Boesch in the summer of 2010.)
Thanks to Stewart’s grand slam, the Tigers extended their winning streak to four straight games with a 7-4 finale against the Royals. They’ll go for the sweep on Sunday with right-hander Tyson Ross on the mound at 1:10 PM EDT.
