The Detroit Tigers’ Greatest Dodger Stadium Moments

The Detroit Tigers have been a part of the American League since 1901. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ roots in the National League extend back to 1884. The two storied franchises’ history as opponents is much, much shorter. However, the Tigers have created some very exciting moments in their sporadic visits to Dodger Stadium.

Interleague play became a reality in Major League Baseball in 1997, but the American League’s Detroit Tigers and the National League’s Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t tangle until 2003. That season, the Dodgers were one of eight different teams that swept a three-game series from the Tigers at Comerica Park. The franchises from the Motor City and the City of Angels wouldn’t compete against each other at Dodger Stadium until 2005.

A Shared Legend

Detroit’s visit to Los Angeles in the summer of ’05, was particularly special for Kirk Gibson, who was in his final season as a member of the Tigers’ coaching staff. The Dodgers, of course, were the first team that Gibson played for after leaving Detroit as a free agent following the 1987 season. Gibby will forever be remembered and beloved by Dodgers fans thanks to his dramatic home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. He was appearing in uniform at Dodger Stadium for the first time since his last game as a player wearing Dodger blue there 15 years earlier.

The Dodgers will honor Gibson with a bobblehead night and induction into the “Legends of Dodger Baseball” during the Tigers’ 2022 interleague series in L.A. This time around, recovery from recent knee surgery will keep Gibson from attending as part of Bally Sports Detroit’s broadcasting crew.

The first Tigers-Dodgers matchup at Chavez Ravine took place on June 6. The Dodgers, powered by Jeff Kent’s three-run, sixth-inning home run off the Tigers’ Jeremy Bonderman, won the opener of the three-game series, 5-3.

June 7, 2005

This was a busy day around MLB. While the Detroit Tigers’ players were getting ready for action in L.A., the Detroit Tigers’ front office was taking care of business of their own. It was Draft Day, and the Tigers chose high school outfielder Cameron Maybin with the 10th pick in the first round.

Play Ball!

Once the Tuesday night game at Dodger Stadium began, Jeff Kent quickly became a thorn in the Tigers’ side again. His RBI-single off starting pitcher Nate Robertston gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Detroit scored lone runs in third and fourth innings to go up, 2-1. Los Angeles tied it in the fourth.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Carlos Guillen walked and advanced to second base on a passed ball charged to Dodgers catcher Jason Phillips. Dmitri Young laced a single into center field that looked like it would score his teammate with the go-ahead run. Guillen didn’t make it, though. He strained his left hamstring on the way home and was thrown out as he limped toward the plate. The game remained tied, and the Tigers lost their starting shortstop. Guillen missed the next 15 games. The Dodgers scored a pair in the fifth to take a 4-2 lead.

Pudge

In the top of the sixth, veteran righty Scott Erickson took over on the mound for the home team. Future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez, in his second year with the Tigers, greeted him with a home run to right-center. Pudge’s fifth homer of the season made it a 4-3 game. The Tigers’ All-Star catcher had a nice night at the plate. He finished 4-for-5 and scored twice.

Following Rodriguez, Craig Monroe lined a single to left. Ramon Martinez walked, and that was it for Erickson. Against reliever Franquelis Osoria, the Tigers manufactured the tying run when Nook Logan’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners and Chris Shelton’s groundout to short brought Monroe home.

Tigers manager Alan Trammell went to his bullpen for the first time in the bottom of the sixth. Righty Chris Spurling needed only six pitches to induce the three infield groundouts that made up his 1-2-3 inning.

The Tigers Roar

Leading off the top of the seventh for Detroit was switch-hitting rookie Tony Giarratano. It was his first plate appearance of the night after replacing the injured Guillen at short. Batting left-handed against righty Duaner Sanchez, “Tony G.” crushed the second pitch he saw. It soared high and deep to right field before landing in the seats. Giarratano’s roundtripper broke the tie.

The ball was retrieved for him after a fan tossed it back onto the field. It was the only home run that the 22-year-old hit in his big-league career, which lasted from June 1 through June 25 that season.

Dmitri Young followed with a blast that was even more impressive, an estimated 446-foot shot to right-center. It was Young’s 11th home run of the season. “Da Meat Hook” went on to lead the team with 21 homers in 2005. The Tigers now led, 6-4, but they weren’t done roaring.

Rondell White hit a ground-rule double, and Pudge singled him to third. Sanchez had yet to retire a Tigers hitter. He got Monroe to ground out to short for the first out, but that plated White. Two batters later, Logan singled Rodriguez home for Detroit’s fourth run of the rally. The visitors took an 8-4 lead into the seventh-inning stretch. Their bullpen took over from there.

Closing It Out

Kyle Farnsworth took the mound for the Tigers in the bottom of the seventh and struck out two in his 1-2-3 inning. Trammell called upon Ugueth Urbina for the eighth. He yielded only a harmless walk in his scoreless inning of work. Closer Troy Percival, in his first season wearing an Old English D, got the ninth inning, despite it not being a save situation. He won a nine-pitch battle with Mike Edwards thanks to a called third strike. Percival, the longtime California and Anaheim Angel, needed only three more pitches to get the final two outs. The Tigers won, 8-4.

Although fans back in Michigan staying up late to catch the game were excited by the first-ever Detroit Tigers victory over the Los Angeles (née Brooklyn) Dodgers, Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that “it sure seemed mundane for something that never happened in 105 years.”

Post-Script

The Dodgers took the series with a 3-1 win on June 8 behind the pitching of Jeff Weaver, who was no stranger to Tigers fans. Weaver, Detroit’s first-round pick in 1998, had been traded to the New York Yankees in 2002. The following year, he lost his only start against his former team. The Dodgers acquired him in 2004, and so this was just Weaver’s second start against the Tigers. The big righty pitched like he had a chip on each of his shoulders. In seven innings, he gave up only one run on two hits. Weaver struck out seven and didn’t walk anybody.

Weaver’s only blemish was the solo home run that Jason Johnson hit in the third inning. Johnson was the Tigers’ starting pitcher that night and became the first Detroit hurler to homer since Les Cain in 1971. It turned out to be the only home run of his career.

The Tigers and Dodgers didn’t meet again until 2008, when Detroit swept a three-game series at home. The Tigers’ next visit to Dodger Stadium happened in 2010.

The 2010 Detroit Tigers dropped both the Friday night and Saturday afternoon games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in their return to the ballpark in L.A. Brennan Boesch, Detroit’s rookie left fielder, shined in the latter, a 6-4 loss on May 22.

Boesch went to Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles and became the first alum to play Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Tigers a month earlier. He led off the top of the eighth with his fourth home run of the season. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Boesch’s ground rule double (his 10th double) drove Johnny Damon home. The late-inning spurt at the plate jacked his sensational 24-game slash line up to .352/.362/.637.

Naturally, young Brennan grew up as an L.A. Dodgers fan. In an interview with Jill Painter from Southern California’s Daily Bulletin, Boesch shared what the experience of playing at Dodger Stadium for the first time as a big leaguer meant to him. He said,

“Oh man, I’m really expecting a ton of emotions. I’m focused on helping my team win and not getting caught up in the personal feelings. I’m making it my goal to enjoy it. For me, Dodger Stadium was the best day ever when I went as a kid. There’s a lot of emotional ties there… We had season tickets and when I was young, we sat up in the blue section. It was awesome. The Dodgers were really good when I was a kid. I remember some great teams. I always loved the rookies, interestingly enough. I loved the good ones like (Mike) Piazza and (Hideo) Nomo and all those guys. I have a lot of good memories.”

May 23, 2010

The Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium began on a somber note. Before the finale of the three-game series, a moment of silence was observed in honor of José Lima. The beloved pitcher who popularized the catchphrase “Lima Time”, died that morning at the age of 37. Lima is on the all-time roster of both the Detroit Tigers (1994-96, 2001-02) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2004).

The news, which Vin Scully shared with TV viewers in Los Angeles that day, was quite a shock. Lima attended the Friday night series-opener between the teams, which the Dodgers won, 4-1. The crowd on hand gave Lima a huge ovation when he appeared on the Dodger Stadium video board that evening. During Scully’s Sunday broadcast, he delivered an in-game eulogy as wonderfully as only Vin Scully could.

Two of Lima’s former teammates in Detroit, Ramon Santiago and Brandon Inge, were in the Tigers’ starting lineup against the Dodgers (at shortstop and third base, respectively) for this game. Santiago commented,

“(Lima) was like a father to me when I came to the Tigers (in 2002). He bought me five suits. He gave me advice. He was one of the greatest teammates I ever had.”

Play Ball!

The Tigers needed a win to avoid being swept by the Dodgers, and they went on the attack against right-hander Hiroki Kuroda right away. Leadoff man Johnny Damon, in his only season with the team, doubled to left. Santiago, who returns to Dodger Stadium with the 2022 Detroit Tigers as a coach, sacrificed Damon to second. Magglio Ordoñez knocked Damon in with a single to center.

Miguel Cabrera strode to the plate. He was in the midst of a 6.5 bWAR season, one which saw him lead the American League with a .420 OBP, 178 OPS+, and 126 RBI. Miggy drove Kuroda’s second pitch to left field and it stayed just fair enough for a two-run home run to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. It was Miggy’s 10th homer. He went on to lead the team with 38. It was a pitch that Kuroda rued. Through an interpreter, the Japanese-born hurler later remarked,

“(Cabrera) was obviously waiting for that pitch inside, so I could’ve thrown it a little bit more inside, now that I think about it.”

Kuroda shook off his rough first inning and kept the Tigers off the board for the next four. In the third inning, Cabrera reached on an error and actually stole a base. Rookie Danny Worth, who debuted a week earlier, singled twice off Kuroda. (Worth, like his teammate Boesch, was a Southern California native who grew up rooting for the Dodgers.) Santiago added a single, but otherwise the Tigers posed no further threat to the Los Angeles starter.

Rick the Dodger?

Meanwhile, Tigers starter Rick Porcello had pitched four scoreless innings. He was helped by double plays in the first two innings and pitched a 1-2-3 third. He pitched around a couple fourth-inning singles and left runners stranded on the corners.

Not only was Porcello pitching against the Dodgers, he needed to be a dodger himself. He was unable to dodge three balls off Los Angeles bats that were lined right at him. He gloved the first one and turned it into a double play by catching a Dodgers runner who strayed too far from second base in the first inning. In the fourth and fifth innings, line drives hit Porcello in the right arm and right leg. He was able to at least turn the former into a force out at second, but the latter rolled away for a single. Porcello, who incurred only a bruise on the arm, said,

“I saw them all for a split-second. I think that the hardest ball that was hit back at me was the one that (Matt) Kemp that I caught. I didn’t have time to move, and it kind of found its way into my glove, really.”

That fifth-inning single was the impetus for a two-run Dodgers rally that trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 3-2. Two more singles and a walk contributed to the damage. Perhaps surprisingly, Porcello returned to the mound for the sixth. It looked like it was going to be a nice bounceback inning for the 21-year-old, who was in his sophomore season with Detroit. He retired the first two hitters, but the Dodgers struck back with three straight singles to load the bases.

A Dodgers Threat

The Tigers were in a tough spot. Kuroda was due up, but his day was over. Joe Torre, who was closing out a Hall of Fame managerial career with the Dodgers in 2010, had Manny Ramirez at his disposal. Ramirez stepped up to pinch-hit. Detroit skipper Jim Leyland stuck with Porcello.

Ramirez, who was a week away from his 38th birthday, had hit 21 grand slams in his career. However, he’d never crossed paths with Rick Porcello before. Manny’s original 15-year run in the American League had ended before “Kid Rick” made it to the majors. The youngster got the aging slugger to groundout harmlessly to Inge at third base on the very first pitch. The Dodgers threat was over, and the Tigers 3-2 lead was intact. Porcello said,

“I was trying to get a good sinker in on his hands. The pitch went pretty much where I wanted it.”

The game became a battle of the bullpens from there. Los Angeles sent the former Tiger Jeff Weaver out for seventh inning. This was Weaver’s second stint in the famous Dodger blue. After the first one ended, he pitched for three major league teams in two years, then spent 2008 in the minors. L.A. brought him back in 2009 as a reliever. This would be his final season in the bigs. Weaver pitched a 1-2-3 inning.

Porcello, the Tigers’ first round pick in 2007, was relieved by Ryan Perry, the Tigers’ first round pick in 2008. Like Ricky, Ryan was in his second season as a major leaguer. (Perry had actually debuted with Detroit one day before Porcello did.) Perry got the first two outs in the seventh on fly balls to the outfield. He then struck Matt Kemp out swinging to end the inning. It was a big out and a nice outing for the 23-year-old righty.

A Tigers Surge

In the top of the eighth, it was righty reliever Ronald Belasario’s turn to tame the Tigers. He struck out Santiago. That brought Ordoñez up. In the matchup between two Venezuelans, Detroit’s hitter got the better of the Los Angeles pitcher. Magglio hit his sixth home run of the season, a shot to left-center. The Tigers led, 4-2, but the Dodgers weren’t ready to go away.

Perry walked leadoff hitter James Loney in the eighth. After getting his next man, Perry gave way to lefty Phil Coke. Veteran Garret Anderson, a longtime American Leaguer appearing in his final MLB season, greeted Coke with a single to center. Ronnie Belliard hit into a 4-6-3 double play to let the eccentric Detroit southpaw off the hook.

The Tigers added a couple more runs in the top of the ninth to boost their lead to 6-2. Though it wasn’t a save situation, closer José Valverde was tasked with getting the Dodgers out in the bottom of the ninth. He struck Jamey Carroll out swinging. Pinch-hitter Reed Johnson singled, which brought up Russell Martin. Like Coke before him, Valverde was the recipient of a clutch 4-6-3 double play. The game was over. “Papa Grande” and his teammates celebrated a nice victory to avoid being broomed out of town.

Post-Game Notes

Oddly enough, the Tigers’ triumph and the Los Angeles loss left each team with identical 25-19 records. Detroit came into the game trailing the Minnesota Twins by two games in the AL Central, while the Dodgers and San Diego Padres were tied for first place in the NL West. Neither team made the playoffs in 2010. The Tigers leveled out at 81-81, and the Dodgers stumbled to an 80-82 finish.

The Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers would meet at Dodger Stadium once again the following season.

After a five-game homestand to open 2014, the Detroit Tigers embarked upon their first road trip of the new season. The first stop was Dodger Stadium for a pair of games against. Detroit would host Los Angeles in another pair of games in July.

Max Scherzer turned in a solid performance on April 8. He gave up only two runs in seven innings and struck out eight. The Tigers were only able to plate a single run for him, though. Detroit tied the game, 2-2, in the ninth, thanks to Victor Martinez’s RBI-single off Kenley Jansen. The Dodgers earned a 3-2 walk-off win in the 10th inning when Carl Crawford doubled off Phil Coke.

April 9, 2014

The pitching matchup for this Wednesday night contest featured a pair of right-handers who had been traded for each other back in 2005. The Detroit Tigers appeared to have the advantage over the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2013’s AL earned run average leader Anibal Sanchez got the start for the Motor City squad. The team from the City of Angels countered with Josh Beckett, a former 20-game winner who suffered through an injury shortened 0-5 season the year before. This was his first start since the previous May. (2014 turned out to be Beckett’s farewell season.)

Play Ball!

Each pitcher got into first inning jams. Ian Kinsler singled and stole two bases for the Tigers and scored on a Victor Martinez sacrifice fly. Dee Gordon (now known as Dee Strange-Gordon) singled for the Dodgers but was caught stealing on a pitchout. Carl Crawford hit a ground-rule double into the left-field corner and took third on a wild pitch. Sanchez then walked Hanley Ramirez, who was also part of the Sanchez-for-Beckett deal years earlier.

The Tigers’ hurler struck out Adrian Gonzalez looking, but that’s when Detroit experienced the pitfalls of being an American League team playing in a National League ballpark.

Victor Martinez, the Tigers’ regular designated hitter, was catching in this game. Victor hadn’t regularly donned the tools of ignorance since 2010. His playing time behind the dish started being phased out the following season. The universal DH was still eight years away from being fully implemented, though, and Detroit manager Brad Ausmus wanted V-Mart’s bat in the lineup. First base wasn’t an option with Miguel Cabrera playing, and so Martinez caught. After this game, he appeared as a catcher only once more in his career.

Before Sanchez threw the called third strike by Gonzalez, Ramirez bolted to second base. Once Martinez unleashed his throw, Crawford took off for home. The throw to second was on the wrong side of the bag and skipped into shallow left field. Both runners were credited with stolen bases, and Martinez was charged with an error that allowed Ramirez to take third. Ramirez scored on a single to give Los Angeles a 2-1 lead.

Each pitcher helped his own cause in the second inning. With two outs, the Tigers’ Alex Gonzalez reached on an error. Sanchez pounded a two-strike pitch into right-center. It was an RBI-double that tied the game at 2-2. The Dodgers’ Juan Uribe led off the bottom half with a single and took second on a passed ball charged to Martinez. A groundout moved him to third. Beckett’s sacrifice bunt brought Uribe home, and Los Angeles reclaimed the lead.

Slick Nick’s Quick Stick Trick

Detroit took command in the third. With two outs, Martinez singled, and Austin Jackson ripped a ground-rule double to left. That brought up rookie third baseman Nick Castellanos, who had debuted as a September callup the previous season. Batting against Beckett was a special moment for the youngster, who grew up in Florida rooting for Beckett during the pitcher’s days with the Marlins. The moment became even more special when Castellanos blasted a three-run home run to straightaway center. It was his first big-league roundtripper. The 22-year-old jubilantly said,

“It didn’t really sink in that I hit my first homer off Beckett until I was sitting in the dugout, and I looked at him out on the mound. I was like, ‘Yes! I got him!’. It was just a cool feeling watching him mow down the Yankees in the (2003) World Series. To get him dead central for a big three-run homer was just storybook.”

Armed with a new 5-3 lead, Sanchez pitched 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth, notching three strikeouts along the way. A Crawford double in the fifth proved to be harmless when he was stranded at second base. Lefty reliever Drew Smyly took over in the sixth and threw a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Beckett and reliever Brandon League kept Detroit from adding to their lead. The Tigers finally added another run in the seventh on Jackson’s sacrifice fly. Smyly threw two more scoreless innings, and the Tigers took their 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Meltdown

The Tigers signed 39-year-old closer Joe Nathan the previous December. The longtime Minnesota Twins relief ace pitched a scoreless ninth inning in his Detroit debut on Opening Day. His two outings since then had been shaky. In 1 2/3 innings, he was charged with two earned runs on three hits and two walks. Luckily, Nathan didn’t cost the team a victory in either game. Of course, Detroit Tigers fans had long since grown accustomed to closers taking them on rollercoaster rides. They were about to board another one.

Adrian Gonzalez tagged Nathan for a ninth-inning, leadoff home run to cut the Tigers’ lead to 6-4. After back-to-back walks to Ethier and Kemp, Uribe lined the first pitch he saw into right-center for a single. The bases were loaded, and there was nobody out. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly called upon Yasiel Puig to pinch-hit. Nathan struck him out on three pitches, including a called strike three. Mattingly went back to his bench for pinch-hitter Scott Van Slyke.

Van Slyke hit a grounder to Castellanos at third base, but Nick’s only play was a force at second base. Uribe was out, but Ethier scored the fifth Los Angeles run of the game. Gordon tied the game a 6-6 with a single to right. Crawford stepped up to the plate with a chance to deliver a big walk-off hit. Instead, he swung at Nathan’s first pitch and flew out to shallow left. The Tigers had made it through the inning but heavy damage had been done.

Redemption

The Dodgers turned things over to hard-throwing closer Kenley Jansen for the 10th inning. Victor Martinez, the Tigers’ ersatz catcher, was still in the game. He was about to make up for his earlier defensive miscues. On the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Martinez homered to right field. Detroit took a narrow 7-6 lead. Alex Avila, the Tigers’ regular catcher, had been watching the entire game from the bench. V-Mart’s last trip to the plate impressed him. Avila remarked,

“That is not an easy thing to do. When you’re catching a game like that, it’s exhausting. It’s easy to lose focus because of how tired you are.”

The Tigers added a pair of singles off Jansen in the 10th before the Dodgers made a pitching change. Don Kelly pinch-hit for Nathan, but J.P. Howell struck him out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 10th, Detroit manager Jim Leyland reset the defense. Avila finally donned his catcher’s gear, and Martinez moved to first base. Cabrera slid over to third, replacing Castellanos. Burly right-hander Joba Chamberlain toed the rubber for the Tigers. After Ramirez singled, Leyland made a call to the ‘pen. Lefty Ian Krol was brought in to face a pair of left-handed hitters, Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier. Krol struck them both out swinging. He only needed three pitches to put Ethier away. The southpaw had done his job well and turned the ball over to Al Alburquerque.

Alburquerque retired Kemp on a ground ball to third. After dropping an extra-innings game at Dodger Stadium the day before, the Tigers bounced back to win an extra-innings game there. The final score was Detroit 7, Los Angeles 6.

Post-Game Notes

When the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers met for their next two games at Comerica Park later that July, the hometown boys triumphed in both. A few years later, in 2017, L.A. took two out of three in Detroit. The two storied franchises didn’t tangle again until the Tigers arrived at Dodger Stadium for a trio of games in late April 2022.