Dillon's dinger: Rookie's 1st HR leads Tigers to victory in series finale

SAN FRANCISCO -- Most of Dillon Dingler’s focus since his callup to the Tigers two weeks ago has been on handling Tigers pitchers and calling games from his post behind the plate. Never mind that Dingler’s emergence as an impact hitter at Triple-A Toledo helped push his path up Interstate 75. He’s a catcher, and big league catchers are invested in their pitchers.

“He’s an open book when it comes to game calling. He takes a ton of accountability,” Tigers manager and former catcher A.J. Hinch said Sunday morning in a quiet Tigers dugout. “He thinks he should call a perfect game every time.”

A few hours later, the same dugout was abuzz as Dingler rounded the bases on his first Major League home run, a Statcast-projected 406-foot drive into the Tigers' bullpen in right-center field at Oracle Park that gave Detroit the lead for good. Bligh Madris pounded the celebratory pizza spear on the dugout floor until he lost two of the three pizzas handing it to Dingler.

After the Tigers held on for a 5-4 win over the Giants, teammates yelled from the clubhouse for Dingler to get back from his postgame television interview so he could be doused with baby powder, beverages and whatever else they could find.

“I had my first hit, and I got the same treatment here when I was in Philly,” said Matt Vierling, who also homered as part of Detroit’s offensive outburst. “It was kind of cool seeing him get that, and wheeled down the hallway and then everybody go nuts. When those things happen, you've gotta celebrate them. First homer, that's worth celebrating.”

Sundays, it turns out, are for Dingler dingers. At least this one was.

“It was cool. It was very cool,” Dingler said before inserting his dry sense of humor. “Contact, pushing the ball forward, was cool at the base level.”

Dingler, the Tigers' No. 12 prospect per MLB Pipeline, arrived in Detroit after going 10-for-19 with five homers over his final five games as a Mud Hen. He had yet to translate that to Major League pitching, having entered Sunday 3-for-20 with three walks and seven strikeouts.

But his knack for game calling came in handy as he waited for his first pitch from Giants rookie starter Hayden Birdsong.

“I kind of noticed how they were attacking me early, a lot of backdoor stuff with sinkers,” Dingler said. “So I figured that I was just going to get some four-seamers away, the first couple ABs especially. I kind of took advantage of it.”

Dingler crushed Birdsong’s 96 mph heater over the middle of the plate. The resulting drive would have stayed in Comerica Park but cleared the fence in San Francisco, scoring Zach McKinstry after his two-out single extended the second inning.

Two innings later, Birdsong started off Dingler with a 95 mph fastball over the plate. The resulting 397-foot drive to right-center would’ve been a homer at Comerica, but it was a ground-rule double into Oracle Park’s infamous Triples Alley.

“He can hit a fastball. That’s what I know now,” Birdsong said.

Vierling, whose first-inning leadoff homer opened the scoring, doubled Dingler home before Colt Keith’s two-out RBI single provided what turned out to be the deciding run.

Add in a hard-hit lineout to third, and Dingler stung three balls with exit velocities of 104 miles per hour or harder.

“Really cool moment for that young guy,” Hinch said. “And he did really good things behind the plate, too, with [Keider] Montero’s adjustments.”

True to the catching fraternity, Dingler was arguably more pumped to talk about his pitcher and longtime Minor League teammate than he was about his own work.

Six of San Francisco’s first 10 batters reached base safely on Montero, including Matt Chapman’s two-run single in the opening inning. Montero struggled to command his high-spin breaking pitches, but Parker Meadows’ catch in deep right-center -- holding onto the ball as he took a tumble after making contact with right fielder Akil Baddoo -- started a run of nine consecutive outs for Montero. He threw 23 consecutive strikes from Heliot Ramos’ second-inning strikeout until LaMonte Wade Jr.’s fifth-inning walk.

“Having that base with [Montero] is huge,” Dingler said, “but my job is just to find what's working and try to guide him back into the zone, or try to find a rhythm. He started to land offspeed, which he wasn't doing in the first inning.”

Montero, who has pitched to Dingler since High-A West Michigan in 2021, was just as happy for the homer. The ball was sitting in Dingler’s locker after the game, waiting to be presented to Dingler’s dad once he returns home.

“I've known him for a long time,” Montero said. “I'm happy that he finally made it. He's a great guy.”