The News' Tony Paul gives his quick takes on the Tigers' 5-4 victory over the Brewers on Thursday:

One thing I loved

Riley Greene is going to strike out. We know that. He whiffed a franchise-record 201 times in 2026 — then made matters worse when, in a late-season interview, he claimed not to care too much about all the strikeouts. Tigers manager AJ Hinch clearly cared. He was lifted for a pinch-hitter in crunch time of a playoff game.

And, of course, Greene cared, too. It weighed on him, and so far in 2026, he's doing something about it. He's still struck out 25 times in 26 games, but that's less than one per game, which, by my mundane math skills, would multiply out to a whole lot fewer than 201 strikeouts.

In baseball, there are a gazillion stats (elementary and advanced) to tell us how a player is doing, where he's improving, and where he needs improvement. But in baseball, there's still the eye test.

And with Greene, the eyes tell you he's definitely shortened his swing a bit, and while that's led to a slight downtick in exit velocity, it's also led to more consistent contact — and still good contact. He had two excellent (and shortened) swings in Thursday's game, including a first-inning, no-doubt home run on which the Brewers' outfielders barely moved (you don't see that too often on opposite-field homers from people not named Miguel Cabrera in his prime), and then on a single that helped lead to an add-on run in the sixth inning (another opposite-field hit, against a left-handed pitcher, no less).

Yes, it's early. But change is evident. And like in many cases in life, change can be a good thing. Rocky told us so.

One thing I didn't

I love me some Milwaukee Brewers. I grew up going to a lot of games at old County Stadium. I love the city, Summerfest, the tailgating, the brats, Bernie, "Roll out the Barrel." Underrated city, and a darn good baseball town. And the Brewers' logo might be the best — certainly the most creative — in all of baseball, even if it did take me way too long, maybe until my 20s, to realize the glove/ball logo served a double purpose as an "m" and a "b."

But the current state of Brewer Ball is next-level annoying, with all the bunting. I don't know how many times they squared around during this three-game series, but it felt like 27 innings of pepper. I'm not sure I've seen anything like it since pitchers used to hit. During Thursday's game, they had back-to-back bunt singles in the sixth inning.

I get it. They're a small-market team, and you build the team the best you can, with what you can afford. They've determined, correctly, that bunters and burners are more cost-effective than boppers. And you can't argue with the results. They've made the playoffs seven of the last eight years. They'll probably be back in October this year.

But, it's 2026, Ty Cobb's been dead for 65 years, and I don't have to like how they ball baseball. And I don't. Here's guessing Tarik Skubal isn't a big fan, either. The Brewers' go-ahead rally in the seventh inning was started by two hits that had exit velocities of 73.1 mph and 82.7 mph, ruining what had the makings of a stellar Skubal start.

Three stars

(Season total in parentheses)

▶ Riley Greene (4)

▶ Jahmai Jones (4)

▶ Brant Hurter

Player of the series

▶ Spencer Torkelson

Tigers' ABS tracker

▶ Hitter challenges: 13-for-29

▶ Catcher/pitcher challenges: 14-for-17

Tigers' uniform tracker

▶ Traditional home whites: 9-2

▶ Alternate home oranges: 1-0

▶ Traditional road grays: 4-6

▶ Alternate road blues: 0-4

Next Tigers game

▶ Game 27: Tigers at Reds, 6:40 Friday, Detroit SportsNet, 97.1

ICYMI: Yesterday's Tigers recap

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers recap, Game 26: One thing I loved, one thing I didn't