SEATTLE -- The Tigers finished their AL Division Series rematch with the Mariners by taking another step back into this year’s American League Wild Card race Thursday. Dillon Dingler and Kevin McGonigle hit two-run homers in support of seven scoreless innings from Framber Valdez, sending Detroit to an 11-0 win over the Mariners in the rubber match of a three-game series at T-Mobile Park.
The win crept Detroit to within a game of idle Texas for the third and final AL Wild Card spot. It also clinched the Tigers’ sixth consecutive road series victory, their longest such streak since 1988. They’re 5-1 through two stops of their three-city, nine-game West Coast trip, scoring eight or more runs in all five wins, with three games to go in San Francisco this weekend.
Considering road struggles were a major catalyst behind the 6-22 May record that dug the Tigers’ hole out of which they’re climbing, the Tigers’ turnaround has been all the more impressive. Despite a Trade Deadline rotation sell-off in the middle of the West Coast trek, the Tigers have stayed on task. Their schedule gets much friendlier travelwise after this trip, with a flight to Kansas City as their longest trek the rest of the regular season.
Not only did the Tigers’ latest road win gain some measure of revenge against their ALDS rivals, it came at the expense of a nemesis. Bryce Miller hadn’t allowed a run against the Tigers in 25 innings over four career regular-season meetings, though the Tigers got him for two runs in Game 5 of the ALDS. Dingler put Detroit in front Thursday, three batters in, with his second two-run homer in as many days before Riley Greene and Colt Keith hit back-to-back doubles.
The Tigers taxed Miller for 40 pitches in the opening inning. Dingler got him again in the second with a two-out RBI single, improving to .358 (19-for-53) with two outs and runners in scoring position. Miller retired his final 10 batters in order from there, but Valdez already had the cushion he needed to cruise.
Valdez, thrust into a more prominent role in Detroit’s rotation with Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize traded and the bullpen thin, didn’t allow a hit until the third inning and didn’t face a runner in scoring position until the sixth. He needed just 95 pitches (60 strikes), one pitch fewer than he used for seven innings to open the road trip last Friday against the Athletics.