CLEVELAND — Dillon Dingler grew up rooting for Cleveland’s MLB team, but on Thursday, he sent the Guardians home for the offseason.
Playing in the ballpark where he attended many games as a youngster, the second-year catcher hit a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth inning to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 6-3 victory over Cleveland in Game 3 of their best-of-three American League Wild Card Series.
Dingler also threw out José Ramírez trying to steal second at a pivotal juncture, helping the Tigers reach the second round of the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
“It was special,” said the 27-year-old Dingler, raised about 55 miles from Cleveland in Massillon, Ohio. “Every time we come here, a lot of family, a lot of friends cheering on, and it’s kind of cool because all of them are Guardians fans.
“Ultimately, it was very special. Kind of closing the door, winning this series.”
Dingler had 16 family members and friends at a Tigers-Guardians game earlier this season, but this time it was only his parents and wife at Progressive Field. Probably just as well for those Guardians fans in the fold.
Wenceel Pérez drove in a pair of runs in a four-run seventh for the sixth-seeded Tigers, who won an ALWCS on the road for the second straight season. Detroit’s next opponent is the second-seeded Seattle Mariners — the AL West champions who had a first-round bye — in a best-of-five AL Division Series. Game 1 is Saturday at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
Thursday was also a little bit of sweet revenge for the Tigers after their season ended in Cleveland last year with a loss in Game 5 of an ALDS, and after Detroit’s run at this year’s AL Central title was derailed by its own September fade and Cleveland’s surge to finish the regular season one game ahead Sunday.
“I don’t think it needs to be any sweeter than what it feels like right now, because you have to earn these wins,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “You have to earn the opportunity to play in October. You’ve got to earn a full-series win over a good team, a hot team, a team that we know well.”
The Mariners took four of six regular-season meetings with the Tigers.
José Ramírez hit a fourth-inning single to drive in the first run for the Guardians, who were 15 1/2 games back in early July before completing the biggest comeback in division or league play in MLB history.
However, they ran out of steam in the playoffs as Detroit turned the page after posting the second-worst record in the majors in September (7-17). The Tigers won the series opener 2-1, then bounced back Thursday after Cleveland answered by winning 6-1 in Game 2.
“It stinks for it to end that way. I couldn’t be more proud of them, of what we accomplished,” said Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt, whose two seasons in charge have brought two division titles. “It’s not enough. We want more. And I think that’s really the message, is let this sting. We’re close. We are really close. We’re not quite there yet.”
The game was tied at 1 with two outs in the sixth when Dingler got an elevated changeup from Joey Cantillo on a 1-1 count and drove it 401 feet into the bleachers in left-center to put the Tigers on top.
It was also his first postseason hit and RBI.
“I was able to get a pitch to hit and do a little damage,” Dingler said. “I feel like the momentum in the series was the biggest thing. The team with the biggest momentum or the most momentum was the one that was going to carry on.”
Detroit then broke it open in the seventh by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times to make it 6-1.
With one out and the bases loaded, Pérez lined a base hit to right off Erik Sabrowski to drive in Javier Báez and Parker Meadows. Hunter Gaddis came in and gave up RBI singles to Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene, which brought in Kerry Carpenter and Pérez.
Kyle Finnegan got the win, retiring all four batters he faced in relief. Cantillo took the loss.
“When Wenceel got the hit — I don’t know why, in baseball, it seems like one good thing happens and then two, three, four, five at-bats in a row were exceptional,” Hinch said. “We wanted to get even more greedy and do more. But it was nice to separate and breathe a little bit, but knowing they weren’t going to give in.”
The Tigers opened the scoring in the third. With one out and runners on the corners, Carpenter hit a grounder down the first-base line that deflected off C.J. Kayfus’ glove when he tried to backhand it. The ball rolled into foul territory near the stands as Meadows scored. Carpenter went to second, and Gleyber Torres advanced to third on what the official scorer ruled a double
The Guardians tied it in the fourth. George Valera led off with a double to the right-field corner and scored on Ramírez’s base hit on a knuckle curveball by starter Jack Flaherty on a full count.
The single was the 40th hit of Ramírez’s postseason career, making him the fifth player in franchise history to reach that mark.
In the eighth, Detroit reliever Will Vest dropped a throw while covering first base on Ramírez’s grounder for an error that allowed Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan to score. Vest quickly recovered the ball near the dugout, however, and threw out Ramírez trying to reach second on the play.