The News’ Andrew Graham gives his quick takes on the Tigers’ 5-2 victory over the Braves on Thursday:
One thing I loved
Have a day, Matt Vierling! The outfielder and utility man for Detroit came up with a pair of RBIs, including tomahawking a chopper down the third base line for a double that scored Kerry Carpenter after a leadoff triple in the eighth inning, tying the game at 2-2.
He could’ve had a third RBI, but the scorers ruled an error in left field after Vierling roped a top-spinning ball past the third baseman and Wenceel Perez scored in the top of the ninth for an insurance run. Vierling did get credited with a hit for that ball in play.
Vierling had just one hit in his prior seven outings, and had gone four games in a row without a hit until Thursday. Then he came up with a multi-hit, two RBI game, almost singlehandedly keeping the Tigers in the game with his timely hitting. His last multi-hit game was April 19 in Boston.
The first two of Vierling’s hits weren’t scalded, as his first hit was a looping opposite-field single into right that scored Riley Greene from second base with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.
Detroit’s offense managed to hit the ball well and the top of the order created a lot of traffic with hits and Kevin McGonigle and Riley Greene combining for five walks. But it was Vierling coming through with the timely hits to help Detroit’s offense scratch runs across.
It would also be a nice turn for the Tigers for any of the Parker Meadows (and now Javy Báez) fill-ins making center-field starts to make more happen at the plate as Vierling did on Thursday. Plus, he put himself in position to score the go-ahead run later in the eighth inning on a Torres sacrifice fly.
tie ball game 👀 pic.twitter.com/2oyxSnXumX
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 30, 2026
One thing I didn’t
Double pinch hitting in the eighth was a bit of a bold move, as manager AJ Hinch inserted Dillon Dingler for Jake Rogers and then Jahmai Jones for Colt Keith. The latter at least involved avoiding a lefty-lefty matchup for Keith.
They both struck out, Dingler looking and Jones then swinging through a high heater with two strikes. The other batters in the inning? Triple, RBI single, walk, walk, RBI sacrifice fly.
Now, had Dingler come up with an RBI hit or Jones cleared the bases, those moves would’ve been masterful tactical choices. Instead, they came up empty. And either pinch-hit decision on its own likely gets little attention, and are likely defensible as the analytical picture and matchups the Tigers were considering.
Jones is now 2-for-11 with five strikeouts in pinch-hitting situations this season, and Hinch has spoken about the challenging spots Jones tends to find himself in as a hitter.
Such is the fickle nature of baseball, and a reminder that the best chess move is sometimes not the risky gambit, but doing something simple — or, on occasion, nothing at all.
took the lead ! pic.twitter.com/siDpt8gJeL
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) April 30, 2026
Three stars
(Season total in parentheses)
▶ Gleyber Torres (6)
▶ Framber Valdez (4)
▶ Kevin McGonigle (10) — three walks, no Ks; took 31 games to get 10 three-star nods
Player of the game
▶ Matt Vierling — nice three-hit day
Tigers’ uniform tracker
▶ Traditional home whites: 9-2
▶ Alternate home oranges: 1-0
▶ Traditional road grays: 4-10
▶ Alternate road blues: 2-4
Next Tigers game
▶ Game 33: Rangers at Tigers, 6:40 Friday, Detroit SportsNet, 97.1
ICYMI: Yesterday’s Tigers recap
Andrew Graham is a freelance writer.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers recap, Game 32: One thing I loved, one thing I didn’t