Jeff Bilbrey
Yes, we know that the Lions kicked off the preseason last night, and everyone was likely watching that instead of the lowly Detroit Tigers. But, right next door to Ford Field, the Tigers provided some fireworks at Comerica Park.
One of the bigger moments in their exciting 10-8 win over the Kansas City Royals was rookie Travis Demeritte‘s first career big league home run.
.@tdemeritte11 picked a good time for his first Major League home run.#MotorOn pic.twitter.com/ZUxMWR5o9p
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) August 9, 2019
One of the pieces that the Tigers acquired in the Shane Greene trade, Demeritte was immediately brought up to Detroit’s big league roster. In the eight games he has played with the team, he has accumulated six hits, three of which have been for extra bases (two triples and a home run). He has also stolen two bases. While those are the good signs, the strikeout rate has been somewhat alarming. He has been punched out in 10 of his 27 at bats (37.3%).
While playing the entire season with the Gwinnett Stripers of the International League (AAA), which consisted of 96 games before getting the call up to Detroit, Demeritte was enjoying a very solid season. He was batting .286, while racking up 20 home runs and 74 RBIs. He had only stolen four bases on the season, which is a surprisingly low number considering the fact that he has already stolen two bases with Detroit.
While there are surely still some kinks for the youngster to work out in his swing, it’s nice to see a bright spot here and there for the Tigers. With last night’s win, the team now sits at 34-78, which is three games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the worst record in all of baseball. One can be quite certain that the team will enjoy having a very good draft pick yet again in the upcoming offseason.
Congratulation on your first career home run, Travis! Here’s to plenty more!
