Late homers by Dingler, Torkelson propel Tigers over Angels

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on May 2, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — There are regrettable moves and then there was the button Angels manager Ron Washington pushed in the eighth inning Thursday night.

Up 4-2, he summoned lefty reliever Reid Detmers to face lefty-swinging Riley Greene with a runner at first. Never mind that the next two hitters after Greene were righties Andy Ibáñez and Spencer Torkelson, followed by lefty Zach McKinstry, who is hitting over .400 against left-handed pitching.

When the dust settled, the Detroit Tigers sent nine hitters to the plate and scored five runs to speed off with an 10-4 win in the first of four at Angels Stadium. It was the woebegone Angels’ sixth straight loss.

Catcher Dillon Dingler had the killing blow, blasting a 409-foot three-run homer.

But the Tigers had drawn even before that swat, foiling Washington's strategy. Greene drew a walk and Ibáñez laced an RBI single to left. Both runners advanced 90-feet when centerfielder Jo Adell boxed the ball.

Detmers got Torkelson to ground out, but McKinstry punched a single threw the drawn-in infield to score Greene – extending his career-best hitting streak to 11 — and then Dingler emptied the bases with his fourth homer.

The Tigers kept on scoring in the ninth. Ibanez singled home another run and then Torkelson unloaded his ninth home run, an opposite-field blast to right-center.

One potential downer from the game, Gleyber Torres, who was on base four times with two singles, a homer and a walk, left the game after his single in the eighth.

He jogged uncomfortably to first base and was replaced by Colt Keith.

The rally made a winner out of Casey Mize on his 28th birthday, but for a while there, it sure seemed like Javier Báez was having all the fun.

Báez slugged a 410-foot home run in his first at-bat off lefty Yusei Kikuchi. It was his second homer of the season, second in two days. He hit another ball to the wall in center in the fourth inning.

He also robbed a homer. The one-time Gold Glove shortstop is playing center field these days. In the fifth inning, he tracked a majestic blast by 391 feet to the wall in center, timed his jump expertly and snared the ball at the top of the wall.

Báez and Torres both hit monster homers in the second to put the Tigers up 2-1. Torres’ flew 416 feet to left.

Mize was having trouble keeping baseballs in the yard himself. In the second inning, he got ahead of Logan O’Hoppe 0-2 and then sprayed three balls.

The 3-2 pitch was a mistake splitter over the plate and the ball ended up in the rocks beyond the center field wall.

He gave the 2-1 lead back in the third, center-cutting a 95-mph sinker to Jorge Soler with a man on and two outs. That one left the yard. By a lot.

The fourth inning very nearly ended Mize’s night. He allowed three singles and a walk but got out of it with only one run scoring. Two Angels runners were thrown out on the bases and the Tigers just missed turning a 5-4-3 triple-play on Adell.

But Mize settled in after that, allowing only a walk in his final three, finishing seven innings in 96 pitches and keeping the Tigers within striking distance, down 4-2.

Right-hander Tommy Kahnle, who got the last four outs in Houston on Wednesday, pitched a clean eighth and righty Tyler Owens, just called up from Triple-A Toledo, made his big-league debut, getting the final three outs.