DETROIT -- Tigers manager A.J. Hinch is an avid fan of watching other games on TV when he’s not at the ballpark, so he had an instant reaction watching the Brewers and Athletics slug 11 home runs in Las Vegas on Monday night.
“I wouldn’t wish that upon any manager, having to sort through that game,” Hinch said Tuesday afternoon. “Watching it go back and forth, I think I was suffering for both managers. … It felt like that game was never going to end.”
Hours later, Hinch got a taste of it in one of the least likely ballparks for a homerfest. The Tigers and Twins combined for eight home runs through the first six innings at Comerica Park, including a two-homer night from Dillon Dingler, whose three-run drive in the sixth inning helped power Detroit to its sixth win in seven games with a 10-4 victory.
Maybe the pregame comments were an omen, or maybe the same storm system that brought early evening showers and a 1-hour, 50-minute rain delay brought hot, humid conditions for balls to fly. But from the first pitch of the night -- a Troy Melton fastball that Byron Buxton lined over the left-field fence -- the Tigers and Twins were slugging and exchanging leads.
The Twins tested the baseball adage that solo homers don’t beat you, peppering Melton for four of them in as many innings. Back-to-back homers from Brooks Lee and former Tiger Kody Clemens powered Minnesota in front in the fifth with the sixth lead change of the night.
The first multi-run homer of the game changed the lead for good. The Tigers had kept pace against Twins starter Taj Bradley with solo homers from Dingler in the first inning and Riley Greene in the second, plus a Greene sacrifice fly in the third. Kerry Carpenter followed Dingler’s leadoff double in the fifth with a drive to right for a two-run homer and a 5-4 lead.
Dingler stepped to the plate in the sixth against submarining reliever Taylor Rogers, needing a triple for the cycle. Instead, he homered to nearly the same spot down the left-field line where he homered earlier. This time, he drove in Zach McKinstry and Gleyber Torres, whose two-run single in the seventh put Detroit into double digits.
The eight home runs are the most in a game at Comerica Park since July 27, 2020, tying the second-highest total in ballpark history. The only game at CoPa with more homers happened on Aug. 8, 2024, when the Tigers hit six homers off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield but lost an 11-9 slugfest to the Red Sox that featured 10 combined homers.
Dingler finished with 11 total bases in a game for the second time in nine days, matching his total from his two-homer, four-hit game last Monday against the Rays at Tropicana Field. His 16 home runs are the most by a Tigers catcher through his first 60 games in a season since Rudy York hit 20 in 1938.