Detroit Tigers third baseman Colt Keith entered Monday with just one home run through his first 65 games this season. File Photo by David Tulis/UPI | License Photo
Colt Keith slugged three homers to spark a 9-3 win over the Houston Astros, becoming the second youngest Detroit Tiger to accomplish the feat.
Keith conducted the personal slugfest Monday in Houston. He went yard in the third, seventh and ninth innings, totaling more than 1,100 feet of long balls. With the performance, Keith (24) became the youngest player since Al Kaline (20) to hit three homers in one game for the Tigers.
“I was seeing it really well,” Keith told reporters, according tom MLB.com. “I was on time for the heater, was seeing spin, was seeing the seams on the baseball, and I felt like I was in a great spot all day.
“I just want to re-create that, do that [Tuesday], and get consistent with that swing. Seeing it well enough to be able to hold the hips back and see that slider away and just throw [the bat] that way and hit it hard that way means I’m in a good spot.”
Keith homered just once through his first 65 games this season. With Monday’s 3 for 4, six RBI performance, he pushed his season average from .257 to .267 and increased his RBI total to 16.
Shortstop Kevin McGonigle and first baseman Spencer Torkelson also homered in Monday’s win to help the Tigers prevent a three-game losing streak.
Astros starter Kai-Wei Teng hit Keith with a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the game’s first run in the top of the first inning. McGonigle doubled the Tigers lead with a 383-foot solo homer off the right-handed pitcher in the next inning.
Keith hit an 0-1 Teng sweeper over the right center field fence for a 411-foot, two-run homer in the top of the third. Torkelson hit a 372-foot solo shot in the next at-bat for a 5-0 Tigers lead.
Third baseman Isaac Paredes and second baseman Jose Altuve hit back-to-back blasts for the Astros’ lone runs in the bottom of the inning.
Neither team scored again until Keith belted a 344-foot, two-run homer in the seventh. He brought in the final run of the night with a 347-foot solo shot in the top of the ninth.
Teng allowed six hits and five runs over 3 1/3 innings to drop to 3-6 this season. Starter Drew Anderson was among six Tigers pitchers who combined to allow seven hits and three runs over nine innings. Relief arms Kyle Finnegan, Tyler Holton, Will Vest and Enmanuel De Jesus surrendered just three hits and no runs over the final five innings.
The Tigers (30-42) sit in fourth place in the American League Central, nine games behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox (38-32). They will take on the Astros (33-41) again at 8:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday in Houston.
