Torkelson, Greene, Dingler homer in Tigers' 7-5 win over Royals

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on May 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Tigers did another high-wire act.

Similar to their 4-3 win against the Giants on Wednesday, they put themselves in peril seemingly every inning Friday in the series opener against Central Division foe the Kansas City Royals.

And, once again, the Tigers’ bullpen didn’t let them fall.

Neither did Spencer Torkelson.

The Tigers (38-20) won their fifth straight, holding off the Royals, 7-5, in front of a lively, crowd of 28,785 at Kauffman Stadium.

Torkelson, who delivered a clutch two-out RBI in the fifth, ignited a two-run eighth inning with his 14th home run of the season. Against right-hander Andrew Hoffman, who was making his big league debut, Torkelson launched a 3-2 change-up, sending it 436 feet into the fountain in left-center.

After Wenceel Perez doubled, Dillon Dingler, who hit a two-run homer in the second, brought him home with his third hit of the game.

The three-run cushion was welcomed after all the stress of the previous innings.

The Royals had 10 hits and stranded 10 runners in the first seven innings. They had runners on base in each of those innings and stranded the tying runs in scoring position in the third and fourth.

Tommy Kahnle pitched a clean eighth, the only one of the game for the Tigers. Will Vest got the first two outs in the ninth and then gave up a pair of two-strike singles, the second by Drew Waters.

But it ended there.

It was only a month ago that Casey Mize stymied the Royals over seven innings at Comerica Park. It went much differently for him Friday.

The Tigers staked him to an early lead. Riley Greene hit a two-out, two-run home run in the first (429 feet to right) and Dingler hit a two-run homer in the second. Both were off first-pitch offerings from Royals starter Seth Lugo, who was making his first start since May 11 (right middle finger inflammation) and lasted just 3 1/3 innings.

But it was clear early that the Royals were on Mize. After Jonathan India flew out to the track in left, Bobby Witt, Jr. launched a 442-foot homer to left.

Right-fielder Kerry Carpenter saved Mize two more runs in that first inning. With two on and two out, he tracked Drew Waters’ drive to the wall, catching it running nearly full speed into the wall — his shoulder and face absorbing most of the impact.

Mize walked two in the third inning around a double by Salvador Perez before Waters plated two with a bases-loaded single.

He left runners at second and third in the fourth inning for lefty Brant Hurter, who bailed him out and kept the skinny lead by striking out Vinnie Pasquantino and getting Maikel Garcia to fly out.

The 14 balls the Royals put in play against Mize had a robust average exit velocity of 96.8 mph.

Torkelson’s two-out RBI gave the Tigers a two-run lead in the fifth.

After Hurter put up a zero in the fifth, he passed the baton to righty Brenan Hanifee with a pocked of right-handed hitters at the top of the Royals’ order coming up.

Hanifee was dinged for a single and a walk, but he got Perez to hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double-play.

The Royals cut the lead to one again in the bottom of the seventh. Hanifee got Garcia to hit a foul pop toward the Royals’ dugout. Torkelson got over but couldn’t corral the ball.

Garcia tripled on the next pitch. He scored on a sacrifice fly off Beau Brieske who finished the seventh.