Detroit Tigers launch five homers in first five innings in 8-7 win over New York Yankees

LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees, 8-7, on Friday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.

The Tigers are 12-10 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

In 22 games, the Tigers have crushed 38 home runs for the second-most among 30 teams in spring training. Five of them occurred in the first five innings against the Yankees, thanks to Colt Keith, Riley Greene, Akil Baddoo and Andrew Knapp.

Andre Lipcius, recently optioned to Triple-A Toledo, put the Tigers on the scoreboard, 1-0, with an RBI single in the first inning. He fell behind 0-2 in the count before slapping a down-and-away curveball for a bloop single into right-center field.

Then, the power surge started.

"There was a lot of offense," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "You want to be a part of it when there's almost 30 hits between the two teams."

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Keith, a 21-year-old prospect who hasn't played above High-A West Michigan and won't make the Opening Day roster, annihilated a first-pitch fastball from right-hander Domingo Germán in the second inning to put the Tigers ahead 2-0.

He hit the ball with a 111.4 mph exit velocity, and it traveled 427 feet to right-center field.

On that home run, Keith set a new personal high in exit velocity for fly balls and line drives in his professional career. His previous best, 108.3 mph, came on a line-drive single in the Arizona Fall League.

Starting off

Right-hander Matt Manning needed an improved outing and delivered.

The 25-year-old tossed 3⅔ scoreless innings with one walk and four strikeouts, allowing just four hits. The highlight of his performance was escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the second inning.

"Good outings are always good to build confidence from," Manning said. "But I was confident from my last one building on the work I do every day. That's what keeps me in rhythm. I take it day by day and don't look too far ahead. I try to get a little better every day."

Manning gave up back-to-back singles to Estevan Florial and Wilmer Difo before walking Billy McKinney on five pitches in the second. Catcher Jake Rogers called for a mound visit, and Manning responded by striking out Rodolfo Duran on four pitches, using three sliders and one fastball.

The next two batters popped out and flied out.

"I let him catch a deep breath and decide what pitch he wanted to throw there," Rogers said. "He looked great. He was throwing everything with conviction. All his stuff was working pretty good."

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Manning utilized his fastball to strike out four batters: Oswald Peraza (called strike, 95.4 mph fastball), Isiah Kiner-Falefa (called strike, 94.4 mph sinker), Duran (swinging strike, 94 mph fastball) and Florial (swinging strike, 93.7 mph fastball).

His slider, though, set the table for a few of those strikeouts.

"Very good day for him," Hinch said. "I was really proud of him for his effort and the way he attacked the first hitter all the way through the last one that he faced. He had the one inning where he had a lot of stress, but it ended up being great for him because he needed to push through some things."

He threw 59 pitches (39 strikes) in his second-to-last start in spring training, including 42% fastballs and 24% sliders.

Manning's velocity increased significantly compared to his previous three starts. His fastball averaged 93.2 mph, the same as his average last season, while he generated seven whiffs with four fastballs, two sliders and one changeup.

"My stuff has always been good," Manning said. "It's just been progressively getting better and better."

At the plate

In the third inning, Greene fell behind 1-2 in the count but tagged Germán's outside fastball down the left-field line for an opposite-field solo home run. Three batters later, Baddoo unloaded on a first-pitch curveball for a two-run homer to right field and a 5-0 lead.

Greene finished 2-for-3. The 22-year-old is hitting .314 with three homers through 13 games in spring training. Baddoo went 2-for-3 with one walk and is hitting .242 through 13 games.

"Just the overall command of his at-bats," Hinch said of Baddoo. "He had some deep at-bats, but yet he was ready to hit. To me, that was as complete of a day on the offensive side as he's had."

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With two outs, Keith stepped into the batter's box again.

This time, the top hitting prospect swung underneath a first-pitch fastball and skied the ball to center field. Left fielder Aaron Hicks ran across the outfield but dropped the ball while tumbling to the grass. His mistake let a hustling Keith cruise into third base standing up.

Knapp, a switch-hitter, replaced Rogers as a pinch-hitter. Rogers was removed for precautionary reasons after he took a fastball off his left elbow while batting in the second inning.

"We weren't going to have him hit again after getting smoked in the elbow," Hinch said. "He's not scheduled to play in the next couple days anyway."

Knapp punished the Yankees by hitting Germán's fastball for a two-run home run with two strikes. The homer from the left side of the plate put the Tigers ahead 7-0 in the third inning.

In the fifth, Knapp stood on the right side of the plate and cranked a solo home run for the Tigers' eighth run.

"I've only done that one other time," Knapp said. "It was in Double-A in 2015, so it's been a while. The second one, I didn't watch it, but people said it went pretty far up. I don't hit many from the right side. I just don't get many at-bats from there."

On the mound

Left-hander Joey Wentz pitched three innings — from the fifth through the seventh — and allowed five runs on six hits and one walk with three strikeouts. He threw 36 of 52 pitches for strikes.

The Yankees scored two runs in the fifth and three runs in the seventh. Wentz, 25, hung a changeup with two outs in the seventh. Difo drilled the ball 350 feet to left-center field for a two-run home run.

"The secondary stuff, I thought, was pretty good," Hinch said. "He was pretty irritated at the end because of the way it ended. He went down (to the bullpen) and got a few more pitches in to finish on a good note."

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Right-hander Alex Faedo pitched the eighth and ninth innings.

He allowed a two-run home run in the eighth, cutting the Tigers' lead to one run, but slammed the door in the ninth with two strikeouts. He threw 23 of 34 pitches for strikes and gave up four hits and one walk.

Three stars

1. Manning; 2. Knapp; 3. Baddoo.

Next up

Saturday (1:05 p.m.) vs. St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.

Next up: Cardinals

Matchup: Tigers (12-10) vs. St. Louis (11-6), Grapefruit League exhibition.

First pitch: 1:05 p.m. Saturday; Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, Jupiter, Florida.

TV/radio: None.

Probable pitchers: Tigers — LHP Matthew Boyd (2-0, 2.00 ERA this spring); Cardinals — LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-0, 1.80).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers click early behind homers, Matt Manning's FB in 8-7 win