MINNEAPOLIS -- Dillon Dingler could’ve gone with something close to home when approached about a custom painted catcher's mask for Players Weekend. But the Massillon, Ohio, native and former Ohio State star turned Detroit catcher knew better.
“I’d get grief if it was Ohio State,” he laughed. “Our social media department and PR department, we gave them everything. I was just like, ‘Yeah, just make it Tigers.’”
The result was a mask design that would make an NHL goaltender jealous, from the Old English D on either side to Tiger stripes across the top to a silhouette of Detroit’s skyline along the right jaw, leading to his number 13 on the chin.
“They did a great job,” Dingler said. “The mask was sick.”
It’s a design fitting for a Tigers catcher. It’s also a fitting image for how Dingler has quickly become synonymous with Tigers baseball with his role. Friday’s opener to Players Weekend put him in the spotlight.
“Ding hung with me,” raved Tigers starter Charlie Morton, who is 15 years Dingler’s senior, after they worked together for six scoreless innings in Friday’s 7-0 win over the Twins to earn Morton his first win as a Tiger. “I told him he was a good pal back there, because he stuck with me.”
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It’s not just praise for Dingler the catcher, Morton explained, but Dingler the person.
“I’ve been really fortunate for a long time now to be on teams with several really good catchers,” Morton, who has played for seven MLB teams said, “really good, defense-focused catchers that are selfless and have a really good feel not just for the game but the people that they’re working with. And I feel like it’s the same exact thing here.”
Morton took the mound with a 5-0 lead thanks in part to Dingler, who hit a two-run, two-out single. But Morton, perhaps impacted by a long inning after a 26-minute rain delay, seemed to be fighting himself from the outset. His curveball was moving but hard to control, evidenced in back-to-back two-out walks.
Odd as it sounds, the Tigers needed a shutdown inning in the first. By sticking with the curveball, Morton and Dingler got it, striking out Matt Wallner.
“I need my breaking ball,” Morton said, “so whatever we’ve got to do to get it going. I know we had a lead. You’ve still got to get through some innings, minimum six innings. Tonight, especially early, it was tough to get it going for strikes.”
When Morton battled the curve again the next inning, falling behind on a 2-0 count to Edouard Julien with a runner on third and one out, they kept with it, eventually fanning Julien on a 3-2 curve.
“We were talking through the first three [innings],” Dingler said. “We weren’t really on the same page, but he was trying to find a feel for the curveball, but we were able to mix in the others. Because he has so many great pitches that move so much, we were able to toss in the sinker early and then changeup also. And then he finally felt a little bit more comfortable with the curveball. Overall, he grinded through six and was great.”
Morton allowed more walks (three) than hits (two) and threw first-pitch strikes to just 10 of 23 batters, including an automatic ball for a pitch timer violation. But he induced seven of his 12 whiffs on curveballs to go with 17 called strikes overall to strand runners in scoring position. Three of his five strikeouts ended innings.
“Even though he said he didn’t have a good feel for the curveball, it’s still completely disgusting,” Dingler said.
Those outs kept the tone that the first inning set with Dingler, who has quietly become a clutch hitter in Detroit’s lineup. Twins starter Pierson Ohl was a batter away from holding the first-inning damage to a run, but Dingler lifted a soft line drive into center field for the first of three consecutive two-out, run-scoring hits from the bottom third of Detroit’s lineup. He added a third-inning RBI double off the left-field wall to score Spencer Torkelson.
This season, Dingler is batting .343 (24-for-70) with runners in scoring position, accounting for 35 of his 49 RBIs. With two outs and runners in scoring position, he’s even tougher, batting .400 (16-for-40) with 23 RBIs.
“Ding has been good because he’s pretty calm in those moments,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He swings a lot, but he can hit to all fields. He’s got power. He’s in the fight, so to speak.
“Easy to trust Ding on defense, easy to trust him at the plate, and he stepped up huge for our team.”