DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers rolled to their fifth straight win Saturday night, riding big swings from Jake Rogers and Spencer Torkelson to a 4-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park
The Tigers (78-53) have won nine of their last ten, extending their lead over the Royals (66-64) to 11.5 games in the American League Central.
Detroit scored first on an RBI double from Rogers in the third inning. Torkelson followed with his 27th homer of the season, a 408-foot solo shot to left-center in the fourth. Rogers struck again in the fifth with another RBI hit, driving home Zach McKinstry all the way from first base.
Pinch-hitter Andy Ibáñez added a solo homer in the ninth to give the Tigers an insurance run.
“When you look at tonight’s game, I love how we scored in four different ways to win,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “We had Jake with the big double after Javy got on base with a single, and he scores from first. We had the Tork homer, which is always fun. We had the hustle out of McKinstry, the aggressiveness by Joey (Cora) on Jake’s base hit. And then Andy with somewhat of a knockout punch (as a pinch-hitter) at the end. We did it in a lot of different ways from a lot of different guys. That’s been the identity of the good version of our offense. We can’t forget that we’re built that way, to have multiple contributions throughout the lineup.”
Tigers starter Chris Paddack got quick outs but didn’t miss many bats, benefiting from double plays that erased baserunners in the second and third innings. He was pulled after five innings and 63 pitches, having allowed just one run. He struck out only one batter and generated only one swing-and-miss on 25 swings.
“Against that lineup, which is high contact — they don’t swing and miss much, they pass the baton very well — he gave us what we needed,” Hinch said. “He had some good defensive plays behind him, too. When I took him out early, I told him, ‘That’s all we need from you tonight. We’ll give them a different look.’ I thought he pitched a great game.”
Paddack said he was initially frustrated at the quick hook, but he called Hinch “a genius at what he does” and said he understood the decision.
“We’re always going to have our opinions about when we should be taken out of the game. That’s just us being competitors. So when he shook my hand, I went in the tunnel, took a deep breath, and thought, you know what, he’s taking me out of the game, we have the lead, we have a great bullpen. And they showed that tonight, being able to shut the door in the late innings against a really good team,” Paddack said. “We want to go out there and throw 200 pitches, but the reality is we have bigger goals as a team, and that’s to get into October.”
The first pitch from reliever Troy Melton in the sixth was launched into the left-field seats by Bobby Witt Jr., trimming Detroit’s lead to 3-2. But Melton recovered to get the next four outs against the middle of the order.
Royals starter Michael Wacha ended his night with a 15-pitch battle against Dillon Dingler in the sixth. Dingler fouled off nine pitches before being rung up on a called third strike that appeared well outside the zone. Two runners were stranded, and Wacha exited with a quality start, allowing three runs over six innings.
“I’ll say it was a borderline pitch so I don’t get fined,” Hinch said of the called third strike. “But what an incredible battle. It ended not going our way, which is frustrating, but it doesn’t take away from how great the at-bat was. Dillon did his part. It was arguably one of the best at-bats of the night.”
The Tigers’ top relievers came through again. Tyler Holton inherited two runners in the seventh, but got pinch-hitter Nick Loftin to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
Will Vest entered with a runner on third in the eighth inning and struck out Maikel Garcia to end the threat. He stayed on to pitch a scoreless ninth and earn his 19th save.
Up next: The series concludes on Sunday at 1:40 p.m.
Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty(7-12, 4.51 ERA) will face Royals righty Seth Lugo (8-6, 3.73).
Flaherty threw seven shutout innings in his last start on Aug. 18 against the Houston Astros. He allowed just three hits and one walk with nine strikeouts, retiring the final 11 batters he faced. It was the longest start of his tenure in Detroit and his longest overall since last September with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Lugo, 35, was the American League Cy Young runner-up to Tarik Skubal in 2024. He’s been good but not nearly as dominant in 2025.
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