CLEVELAND — They didn’t jeer or heckle Dillon Dingler here when he hit the home run that cut through the tension, broke open the dam and put this decisive Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series on the course to completion.
The rivalry between Dingler’s Tigers and the Guardians has never been stronger after they’ve faced each other in consecutive falls, in consecutive postseason series that went the distance and — most pointedly — nine times in a 17-day span that covered Detroit’s historic AL Central collapse and, now, its successful resurgence.
And yet Dingler, whose tie-breaking solo home run to left field in the sixth inning was the biggest swing of the Tigers’ 6-3 triumph Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field, literally hits too close to home for anybody here to gin up a genuine grudge against him. The product of Massillon, Ohio (54 miles from this ballpark) and Ohio State gets, at worst, respectful silence when he’s introduced or when he comes through against the club he grew up rooting for.
You’re going to hear a lot about Cal Raleigh during that series, as you should. Raleigh’s 60 home runs while donning the so-called tools of ignorance is such an absurdity that it’s still strange to type.
But don’t sleep on Dingler’s value to the Tigers. He shored up their catching position in his first full season by giving them above-average offense (a .278/.327/.425 slash) and, most importantly, earning the trust of the pitching staff with his good work behind the plate.
“He grinds with you,” said staff ace Tarik Skubal, who is on the verge of his second Cy Young Award and never missed a beat this year while working with a backstop who had all of 27 games of big league experience prior to 2025.
In a Wild Card Series that was a grind for all involved, Dingler got his first postseason experience and was sitting 0-for-9 with two walks and five strikeouts at the time he came to the plate against lefty Joey Cantillo in the sixth.
“I was scratching and crawling a little bit,” Dingler said. “I was able to get a pitch to hit and do a little damage. Momentum, 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. We were able to flip it right there.”
Like a Tigers team that broke out from that 2-1 edge to basically put the game away with a four-run seventh, Dingler has seen where momentum can lead.
A second-round selection in the 2020 MLB Draft, Dingler watched his career stall somewhat at the Double-A level. He logged 208 games with Erie before he was finally deemed ready to advance to Triple-A Toledo.
“It took a couple years in Double-A, but he made some small swing adjustments, and he was always open to learning,” Tigers assistant general manager Ryan Garko said. “And he always led the staff and learned how to call a game. He really is one of those natural-born leaders that the guys flock to and trust.”
They’re riding high now. These Tigers survived the worst divisional collapse in MLB history and lived to tell the tale. They got a textbook Skubal gem in Game 1 and shook off the late-inning meltdown they endured in Game 2 to survive and advance out of a series that exhausted both squads.
Interestingly, Dingler became just the third catcher ever to hit a home run and throw out a baserunner in a winner-take-all postseason game, joining the Braves’ Javy Lopez (Game 7 of the 1996 National League Championship Series) and the Giants’ Buster Posey (Game 5 of the 2012 NL Division Series), per the Elias Sports Bureau.
For a northeastern Ohioan to deal the most decisive blow in this game was ironic. But there was no conflict in the stands. Dingler’s friends and family — including his Avon Lake-born bride, Alyssa — have long since abandoned their Guardians ties and pledged their devotion to Detroit.