launch mode

Eighty-five games into his rookie campaign, Colt Keith may just have had his signature moment of 2024. The ex-Biloxi High standout launched a game-tying, two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday as Detroit pulled off an amazing comeback and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-9 in 10 innings. “That’s one of the coolest moments yet,” Keith, 22, told mlb.com. He’ll be hard-pressed to top it. Keith’s homer, a yanked 364-footer, came off Dodgers closer Evan Phillips, the former Mississippi Braves hurler. It capped the Tigers’ five-run ninth, and they won it on a Gio Urshela bomb in the 10th. Keith went 3-for-4, raising his average to .253. The homer was his ninth. He has 37 RBIs. He arrived in the regular lineup at second base this spring as Detroit’s top prospect, having hit 38 homers over three minor league seasons since being drafted in the fifth round in 2020. He was given a big contract in January, a six-year, $28.6M deal with options and bonuses that could make it worth much more. But on May 19, he was batting .197. He didn’t have an MLB home run as of May 23. Apparently, he has figured some things out. A powerfully built left-handed hitter, Keith is batting .407 his last seven games, .311 with seven homers his last 15. If there were doubters in Detroit, they’ve been silenced. P.S. Purvis High’s Jacob Parker hit 24 homers in two rounds of Saturday’s high school home run derby at Globe Life Field in Texas and advanced to Monday’s final against Josiah Hartshorn. … Former M-Braves catcher Drake Baldwin — Atlanta’s No. 11 prospect (by MLB Pipeline) — homered in Saturday’s All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life. … And current M-Braves catcher Tyler Tolve slammed a walk-off homer in the ninth inning for a 3-2 victory over Birmingham at Pearl’s Trustmark Park.