Advertisement

Tigers top prospect Max Clark's magical night gives Detroit fans more hope

Emma Lingan
Emma Lingan

Motor City Bengals

All-Star Futures Game / Stacy Revere/GettyImages

Detroit Tigers prospect Max Clark has only played in a handful of games with High-A West Michigan, but that's all he needed to make a significant impact.

The 19-year-old did it all in West Michigan's 5-4 win over the Lansing Lugnuts Thursday; he made a diving catch, racked up three hits, knocked in four runs, tied the game on a two-run triple and scored the winning run on a walk-off balk.

Clark sealed the electric – albeit unconventional – victory for West Michigan by lining a two-RBI triple to deep right in the bottom of the ninth and then scoring the winning run two pitches later on a walk-off balk by right-hander Hunter Breault.

The Tigers' top prospect is the No. 10 overall prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and No. 4 at the outfield position. He has consistently impressed with both his bat and his glove, and his elite-level skills were on display in Thursday's win.

Tigers' top prospect Max Clark continues to give Detroit fans hope after appearance in MLB All-Star Futures Game

The former No. 3 overall pick in last year's draft, Clark spent the first half of the season getting an extended look at Single-A Lakeland, where he posted a strong .286/.386/.421 slash line with seven home runs, 58 RBI and 26 stolen bases.

Clark has at least one hit in each of the five games in which he has appeared since the All-Star break between Single-A Lakeland and High-A West Michigan, batting .409 with two three-hit outings.

Since his promotion to High-A on July 21, Clark has compiled an outstanding slash line of .357./357/.500 to continue what has been the most dominant month of his young career. Through the month of July, Clark has been hitting .410/.489/.769 with a 1.258 OPS, nine extra-base hits – including three home runs – six walks, 12 RBI and nine runs.

Clark recently appeared in the MLB All-Star Futures Game, where he was the only American League starter to play the entire contest. He went 1-for-4 with a single and played the entire game in center field.

More Tigers content from Motor City Bengals

Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan

Emma Lingan is an MLB Staff Writer for FanSided primarily covering the Pittsburgh Pirates. She has been covering baseball for more than a decade dating back to her time as a student at Wake Forest University, and she has won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. National Team delegation (2016 Pan-American Championships & 2017 World Baseball Classic). A native of Washington, D.C. and current resident of Nashville, Tenn., she is also entering her seventh season as a credentialed NHL media member and currently covers the NHL’s Nashville Predators for The Hockey News. When she's not watching hockey, baseball or football, she enjoys podcasting, reading, going to the gym, consuming large amounts of coffee and taking long walks with her dog, Minkah. You can follow her @Emma_lingan on Twitter and Instagram.