CINCINNATI — Spencer Torkelson spent the first four weeks of the season answering questions about when he’s going to hit a home run.

He’s spent the last week being asked if he’s ever going to stop hitting them.

“Soon as you feel it once, I mean, the brain is crazy,” Torkelson said. “It likes to repeat it.”

Torkelson homered for the fourth straight game Saturday, walloping a first-pitch sinker from right-hander Brady Singer and sending it into the seats in right-center.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it came in a 9-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The Tigers hit so many balls hard off Singer. In his 5 1/3 innings, they put 21 balls in play with an average exit velocity of 95.3 mph.

And all they got to show for it were solo homers by Kevin McGonigle, who hit Singer’s second pitch of the game 405 feet off the yellow stripe above the center-field wall, and Torkelson.

The last Tigers hitter to homer in four straight games was Ian Kinsler in May of 2016. The club record is five, set by Marcus Thames in June of 2008.

“It feels really good,” Torkelson said before the game. “I just stuck with it and trusted it and it’s definitely paid off these last few days. Still have to keep doing it, though.”

McGonigle, who had three hits, his eighth multiple-hit game in his 27-game big league career, extended his on-base streak to 23 straight starts, the longest active streak in baseball.

He’s hitting .337 on the season with a .972 OPS.

But the Tigers, who fell back to .500 (14-14), were behind the 8-ball from the start. The red-hot Reds jumped on right-hander Jack Flaherty, bashing three homers and scoring six times in two innings.

The two-inning start was Flaherty’s shortest since June 26, 2022.

Again, it was command issues that led to his demise.

He walked Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz with one out in the first inning. He did not land either of his breaking balls in the strike zone to the first three hitters.

He threw a slider in the zone to Sal Stewart, though, and it landed in the seats. Stewart’s ninth homer of the season was a three-run shot.

Nathaniel Lowe, who hit two homers including the winner in the ninth on Friday, followed with a solo homer, hooking another slider down the line in right.

It took Flaherty 36 pitches to get through the first.

With two outs and a runner on in the second, De La Cruz scalded a knuckle-curve. The ball left his bat at 107.6 mph and flew 415 feet into the seats in left-center.

In six starts this season, Flaherty has a 5.33 ERA with 22 walks and four hit-batsmen in 25.1 innings.

It was back-to-back short outings for Tigers starting pitchers, which has put a lot of stress on the bullpen. The Tigers needed to use four relievers to cover the final seven innings Saturday.

Stewart struck again in the sixth, banging a two-run single off reliever Connor Seabold scoring the two runners he inherited from Tyler Holton. It was a five-RBI night for Stewart.

Seabold only threw three more pitches. He slipped on his delivery on a 2-0 pitch to Lowe and fell awkwardly. It looked like he injured his left ankle and left the game after making one practice pitch.

That was the last thing the Tigers’ bullpen needed.

Drew Anderson, who pitched a scoreless inning Friday, was pressed into emergency duty.

He ended a base-loaded mess in the sixth getting Spencer Steer to bounce into a 6-4-3 double-play and he struck out the side in the seventh.

He gave up a solo homer to T.J. Friedl leading off the eighth, but he ended up striking out five in 2 2/3 innings.

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