Riley Greene makes MLB history with 2 HR ninth inning

There was a point, early this season, where some were wondering if Riley Greene might have lost his swing. After a hot start, the All-Star outfielder scuffled through much of mid-April. But A.J. Hinch never gave up on him, and Greene never gave up on himself, and it became obvious in recent weeks that Greene was getting his mojo back.

Late in the evening on May 2nd, up against the Angels who had held onto a one-run lead for the entirety of the game, Riley Greene faced off against legendary reliever Kenley Jansen, and he opened the ninth inning with a solo home run to break a 1-1 deadlock. Nine batters later, Riley was back in the batter’s box and it was still the ninth inning. However, the score at that point was 6-1 as Colt Keith and Javier Báez made it three home runs in the inning. This time Greene was facing Jake Eder. Once again, Riley went yard, and as soon as the ball left the field, he also made MLB history.

With his second home run of the inning, Greene joined a very small coterie of hitters to get two home runs in the same inning. He is the 62nd player to do it, the second this season (Jo Adell hit two homers on April 10th in the fifth inning.)

But by doing it in the ninth inning, Riley Greene cemented himself as a player to accomplish something for the very first time in MLB history. None of the other 61 players to homer twice in one inning ever did it in the ninth inning before.

Certainly there are less at-bats in ninth innings than in any other in a regular contest. But again and again it’s remarkable how many little oddities like this have just never happened before. Batting around in the ninth isn’t very usual, and even in a laugher with a position player on the mound, teams are taking it easy and just taking softball rips for fun and generally making a lot of routine outs.

Riley Greene, as is his policy, wanted little to do in talking about the record. The team getting the win was what counted, and by attitude alone Greene continues to show that he expects this high level performance from himself and has really become a team leader focused on the bigger prize.

It has also been almost 20 years since a Tigers player has accomplished the feat in any inning. So not only was it an incredible inning of baseball, and another victory for the red hot Detroit Tigers, it was one that made MLB history as well.