DETROIT -- Troy Melton was warming in the Tigers' bullpen near the left-field corner of Comerica Park when Javier Báez turned on Gabe Speier’s slider and sent it down the line in the fifth inning. His first reaction was like everybody else's.

“I thought it was gone,” Melton said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, here we go.’”

Detroit third-base coach Joey Cora, whose emphatic waves demonstrate the Tigers’ baserunning aggressiveness, was nearly in fair territory midway down the third-base line as the ball soared toward the foul pole. Kerry Carpenter ran from the on-deck circle to the home-plate circle, his right arm extended.

Everyone figured this was Javy’s moment. Given his history, it’s hard to dispute.

“He just rises to the moment,” manager A.J. Hinch said after the Tigers' 9-3 win over th

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