LAKELAND, Fla. -- Ask Brandon Inge what would've happened with the inside pitch he hit out for a solo homer Saturday had he not changed his approach at the plate over the offseason, and he has no hesitation.

"I would've pulled that foul," Inge said, "just because the position of my body wasn't conducive to hitting inside pitches."

He would've pulled it foul or swung and missed. The pitch selection wouldn't have mattered.

"Fastballs, cutters, changeups, whatever," Inge continued. "Anything inside, the natural reaction -- because I was leaning back -- was to pull off of it, pull it foul. It was very hard to keep the ball fair down the left-field line for me in the past couple years."

Instead, Inge said, "It stayed true down the [left-field] line, didn't really hook much at all."

The strike off of Mets starter Jonathon Niese would've been a quality golf shot, straight and with altitude towards the left-field berm.

It was Inge's first home run of the spring, but it was the first of what he hopes are many situations where his positioning at the plate pays off. He's sticking with it, and he has taken enough swings that he doesn't fall back into his old habits, so he's going to find out if it makes a difference.

Statistically, he's at least off to a good start. Saturday's homer improved him to 4-for-6 with no strikeouts through three games, but the sample size is far too small to make any determination. Instead, Inge is judging off of how he feels at the plate when he swings.

That, he says, is the biggest difference for him.

"I feel much better with this approach," Inge said. "I feel confident. It's a good feeling."

Instead of fighting his mechanics as in the past, Inge said, he is working with them and going off instinct. He also has the advantage of a mechanism that doesn't allow him to drop his hands easily anymore. With his bat pointed back towards the pitcher in his stance, he says, he would hit himself if he regressed to his old habits.

Time and games will tell a better story, and he should get a heavy dose of at-bats with other regulars out for the World Baseball Classic. So far, Tigers manager Jim Leyland likes what he's seeing.

"He's a totally different hitter with his hands up," Leyland said. "I don't know how it's going to play out. If he stays with it, I think he'll do very, very well. He seems to be comfortable, he seems to like it and he's getting results. Hopefully he can just maintain that."