TAMPA >> Riley Greene gets down to this part of the country, just a couple of hours away from his home and family outside of Orlando, once a year during the baseball season. And usually, Team Greene comes out in hordes for this series against the Rays.

So, does he have a lot of family here for this one?

“No,” he said.

Huh?

“So, it’s my godchild’s first birthday and everyone is going to that instead of watching Riley play,” he said, with a wistful shrug.

More than 100 people were expected to attend young Riker’s first birthday bash in the Orlando area.

“At least my parents are here and my sister,” Greene said.

The rest are missing quite a show.

Greene, in case you’re not paying attention, is on a tear. He hit two home runs and knocked in four Friday night, giving him 17 homers and 59 RBI on the season. He’s got 29 RBI in his last 29 games and he’s making a strong run at player of the month honors for June, slashing .353/.400/.618 with a 1.1018 OPS with four homers and 19 RBI entering play Saturday.

“I really haven’t changed much,” Greene said. “Just trying to get a good pitch to hit, put my body in a good position to hit the ball and see what happens.”

Damage happens. Lots of damage.

He’s slugging .526 on the season. The last Tiger to have 59 RBI on June 21 was Miguel Cabrera, who had 71 in 2013. He is one of three American League players to have at least 17 homers, 59 RBI and 35 extra-base hits, joining Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh.

Still, he contends that nothing has really changed. He’s not consciously chasing power. Except for significantly more tilt in his swing, his mechanics and approach are mostly the same as last season.

He was asked before the game Saturday if he went into last offseason consciously trying to add more slug to his offensive profile.

“To be honest, no,” he said. “Just kind of did the same stuff over and over again like I’ve done the past offseason. I just think it comes with being on time and getting a good pitch to hit.”

This has always been Greene’s primary focus. It’s what manager AJ Hinch asks him after just about every at-bat — did you get a good pitch to hit. Here’s why that’s so important:

Greene, overall, is slugging .554 against fastballs and .580 against breaking balls. When he’s ahead in the count, he’s slugging .826 on fastballs, .773 on breaking balls and .727 on off-speed pitches.

Impressive.

“I think it speaks to my approach,” Greene said. “It speaks to another year under my belt. More experience is huge. And maybe I’m getting a little stronger. Who knows?”

For all of Greene’s production, the Tigers, still with the best record in baseball, have hit a bit of a plateau. They came in Saturday on a rare losing streak (two games) and had split their last 10.

And Saturday’s 12:10 p.m. start meant they would be playing at least 37 innings of baseball over the last 60 hours with more than three hours of rain delays and a two-hour, late-night, early-morning plane ride mixed in.

“We just flush it,” Greene said. “Yesterday was yesterday. It doesn’t really matter because we can’t change what happened. Just focus on today. This is just part of it. We can’t complain about it and say it’s a tough stretch. At the end of the day, that’s just kind of an excuse.

“People go through it. It is what it is. We just have to figure it out and play through it.”