Dingler, Valdez spark Tigers' revival in home opener

DETROIT -- For a few innings Friday, the Tigers seemed just as snakebitten in their return to Comerica Park as they were for three days in Arizona. Framber Valdez and Dillon Dingler turned their fortunes around in one inning.

It wasn’t as easy as the 4-0 win over the Cardinals might suggest. But it was a Detroit brand of baseball on a very un-Detroit afternoon in early April, breaking a four-game losing streak just like the midday sun broke through the early morning showers.

“We played out of a lot of big situations,” Dingler said. “Game felt close pretty much the entire way through. That's our brand of ball. Obviously the bats, we could've had better situational hitting, mostly from me. But overall, I thought that was exactly who we are.”

This, too, is who Dingler is, a catcher capable of providing a presence on offense and defense alike. The Tigers saw the potential all the way back to his days at Ohio State, but they have exercised patience with him ever since his selection in the 2020 MLB Draft.

Not only is he a trusted game-caller with the pitching staff, he’s increasingly emerging as a threat at the plate. The Tigers have two home runs so far this season, and Dingler has both.

“It’s more his quality of at-bat,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He swings at the right pitches. He hits the ball hard. He is a presence, and he’s becoming more and more confident versus different styles of pitchers. It’s not just lefties. It’s not just four-seamers. It’s not just guys with spin. He’s an overall really good hitter, and as the confidence grows and he moves up in the order a little bit, you can see him impact the game.”

After three games batting seventh in the Tigers' lineup, Dingler has batted fifth in their last two games. But before he could impact the game at the plate, he and Valdez had to impact it in the field.

After Valdez stranded runners at the corners in the third inning, the Cardinals loaded the bases on him in the fourth. What looked like the third out on a Yohel Pozo ground ball to first became an injury scare when Spencer Torkelson’s toss bounced off Valdez’s glove and hit him in the fingers.

“It was light contact. It wasn’t that bad,” Valdez said through translation from Tigers manager of Spanish communications and broadcasting Carlos Guillen.

The lefty threw a couple of warmup pitches and stayed in the game.

Five pitches and a Thomas Saggese walk later, the Tigers had another mound visit, this time with Dingler and pitching coach Chris Fetter visiting with Valdez.

“Right after he had that play at first base, might have made his finger a little numb,” Dingler said, “not trying to make excuses for him or anything. [The mound visit] is a slow-down thing, try to slow momentum from their side and then go right after them.”

Valdez answered, firing a first-pitch sinker 94 mph that José Fermín fouled off. Then Valdez flipped a curveball onto the outside corner, one of four called strikes he got with the big breaking pitch.

“Obviously, there's a saying: Pull the string. It's usually with changeups, but his curveball is one of those,” Dingler said. “He's a ton of fun to catch. All his pitches move so much. He makes my life easy.”

With an 0-2 count, Valdez and Dingler went back to the curve, this time out of the zone, and got an inning-ending fly out to left.

Like Wednesday in Arizona behind Tarik Skubal, the Tigers still needed to provide Valdez some support. They had come close but struggled to break through, from Kevin McGonigle’s 403-foot flyout to the depths of left-center field in his first Comerica Park at-bat to Kerry Carpenter’s single off the right-field fence. Javier Báez was poised to score Detroit’s first run since Tuesday on Gleyber Torres’ two-out single, but Cardinals right fielder Jordan Walker threw him out at home on the fly at 100.6 mph according to Statcast.

“I thought we were putting up pretty good at-bats and not getting a ton to show for it,” Hinch said. “And then you need sort of the breakthrough moment.”

That came from Dingler, who crushed a sweeper from Cards starter Michael McGreevy into the stands in left-center. The Statcast-projected 433-foot drive was the longest home run of Dingler’s MLB career, easily topping his 410-foot homer at Dodger Stadium last season, and it scored Riley Greene following his one-out double a couple of pitches earlier.

“I got a good pitch to hit,” Dingler said. “Finally was able to drive a slider. That's pretty nice.”