CLEVELAND – The Detroit Tigers outlasted the Cleveland Guardians’ worn-down bullpen and two players who had been held hitless for the series broke through, helping the Tigers win the game on Oct. 2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler was 0-for-9 when he came up to bat with two out and the game tied at one in the top of the sixth, but then, he pulled a go-ahead home run down the left field line off Guardians reliever Joey Cantillo on a flat changeup that was in the middle of the zone and high. Before, Progressive Field was tense, the game deadlocked, and the Tigers had squandered their chances with runners on base earlier in the game.
Then, as Dingler’s home cleared the wall, the park went from tense to slack, the tension released when the Tigers took the lead.
Dingler, 27, was a second-round pick by the Detroit Tigers in 2020 and has gone over a few speed bumps in his development, spending the majority of his four-year minor league career with the Tigers’ Double-A affiliate in Erie, Pa.
“You learn a lot about yourself going through the ranks. To me, I spent my fair share in Double-A. You know, I hit well — hit well up until I got to Double-A. Struggled a little bit. Learned a lot about myself as a hitter,” Dingler said. “And then you kind of turn the page. You find a little bit of success and you kind of roll with it.”
“I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing the past three or so years. Obviously, I scuffled last year when I came up. But I was able to get the opportunity this year and find that comfort level, and I was able to excel a little bit.”
Dingler has enjoyed a breakout season and has even earned the trust of Tigers ace Tarik Skubal not to shake him off. At the plate, he had 13 home runs, 57 RBIs, and a slash line of .278/.327/.425 in 435 regular-season at-bats.
“It was huge. Obviously, I’ve been saying this. I was scratching and crawling a little bit. I was able to get a pitch to hit and do a little damage. Momentum, I feel like the momentum in the series was the biggest thing. The team with the biggest momentum or the most momentum was the one that was going to carry on,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch on the Dingler go-ahead home run.
“We were able to flip it right there, and we had a huge sixth inning, able to score some runs and be in the driver’s seat a little bit. It was a big one.”
That home run allowed the team to relax, and they finally put up a crooked number on the board with a five-spot that deflated the Guardians. The Guardians were in a bad spot because their starting pitcher, Slade Cecconi, only went 2 1/3 innings with one run allowed. The bullpen was short-handed coming into the game, having pitched 9 1/3 innings the previous two days.
Additionally, Wenceel Perez had also been struggling and was 0-for-11 before he broke through with the two-run single that really broke the Guardians’ backs. The Guardians’ offense is not built to play from behind, especially when Jose Ramirez isn’t hitting for power. Ramirez is a legendary player and an icon in Cleveland, but he had a brutally bad series and had a negative impact.
He got caught stealing after he tied the game in the fourth with an RBI single off Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty. Ramirez was also thrown out late in the game in the eighth when Tigers reliever Will Vest dropped the ball at first base. Ramirez ended the rally on the bases, and what he did in Game 1, getting caught out between third and home with no outs, in that rundown on the grounder to Vest was inexcusable.
On the other side, Flaherty did everything the Tigers and manager A.J. Hinch could’ve asked from him, going 4 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and one run allowed. He gave Hinch a chance to deploy his bullpen plan, and he executed it to perfection. The only runs their bullpen gave up were those two unearned runs on the drop by Vest.
Another reason why the Tigers won was that all of their big boppers showed up. Kerry Carpenter was first up with an RBI double to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead in the third.
‘’I feel like I can get my best swing off and still make contact. There’s a little more of trying to see the ball a little deeper and make better decisions,” Carpenter said about changing his approach for the postseason.
“The wind was howling in the last couple of days, so there are no cheap ones. So getting on base, trying to get Tork up, trying to get Riley up, something I was a little conscious of for sure.”
Carpenter had a strong series, going 4-for-10 (.400 batting average) with one RBI and five walks.
Last year, the Guardians ended the Tigers’ season on Oct. 12 on this same field in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Carpenter reflected on that pregame and if it was something he could use going into the game today.
“The experience of being in a winner-take-all last year was something that’s helping us right now, I think. Other than that, I don’t know if there’s anything because it’s different teams, different guys we’re facing and stuff,” Carpenter said. “It’s just kind of a fun experience that we had, that we can learn from last year and realize that this is everything. There’s no saving your body. There’s nothing like 162 anymore. It’s go time today.”
Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene each added RBI singles for two insurance runs to stretch the lead to 6-1 after the seventh, and the Tigers never looked back.
They will now look forward to an ALDS matchup with the Seattle Mariners on Oct. 4 in Seattle at T-Mobile Park.
Photo: Dillon Dingler (13) hits a solo home run during the sixth inning of Game 3 of the American League Wild Card baseball playoff series against the Cleveland Guardians in Cleveland, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
