DETROIT -- Dillon Dingler's eighth-inning RBI double scored Hao-Yu Lee for the go-ahead run to put the Tigers on top for good in a 4-3 win over the Royals on Thursday night at Comerica Park.
Detroit’s fifth win in seven games out of the All-Star break brought the Tigers within four games of the final American League Wild Card spot and six games of the AL Central lead.
The Tigers were blanked for six innings by former Toledo Mud Hen Randy Dobnak and veteran lefty reliever Matt Strahm. Troy Melton traded zeros for five innings, helped by a rare strikeout/2-1 putout at home plate, before Isaac Collins’ two-run homer in the sixth ended Melton’s night.
Back-to-back singles from Dingler and Kerry Carpenter put two on with nobody out in the seventh inning off former Tigers reliever John Schreiber, who came within a strike of stranding them there. James Outman connected with a 94 mph fastball over the plate and lofted it just over the right-field fence for his fourth home run of the season.
Josh Rojas’ RBI single off Drew Anderson scored Tyler Tolbert to even the score in the top of the eighth. Lee, whose three-run homer put the Tigers up for good in Wednesday’s win over the Cubs, singled with one out in the bottom half off Steven Cruz and advanced on a Riley Greene groundout. Dingler fouled off back-to-back cutters from Cruz but got a third over the plate and ripped it into the left-field corner for his 35th two-out RBI of the season.
The win chipped away at the Tigers’ struggles in their division this season. They’re 10-16 against the AL Central, but half of those wins have come at the Royals’ expense.