Tigers 4, Dodgers 5: Spencer Torkelson says walks are good for your health

That must be why he took four of them.

Welcome to the 2025 regular season! The Tigers are on the west coast, getting some late-night games out of the way early, and they were squaring off against the biggest spenders of the offseason: the Los Angeles Dodgers . The pitching matchup saw 2024 Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal up against 2018 and 2023 Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

The Tigers were using a relatively untested outfield, but the game would provide plenty to test their mettle, so let’s see how things went for the first game of the season.

In the first inning things didn’t start out too hot for the Tigers with Andy Ibanez, Gleyber Torres, and Riley Greene going 1-2-3 against Snell. Thankfully, despite the scouting reports telling the Dodgers to swing away on Skubal, they also went down in order.

As we head to the second, let’s take a moment to be grateful for Jason Benetti, who is not announcing this game, but the ESPN commentary is so bad it reminds me that we are very lucky for every other game. The ESPN crew does not seem to be aware there are two teams playing, as their singular focus for this game has been talking about the Dodgers and only the Dodgers.

In the top of the second, Spencer Torkelson started things off with a leadoff walk. New outfielder Manuel Margot singled, getting Tork to third, with two on and no outs. Javier Baez grounded out, leaving Torkelson caught in an embarrassing rundown between third and home. Jake Rogers then hit a flyout that really looked like it was going to go out before falling short. The Tigers should have been one up, and they would soon regret it as the bottom of the inning saw the Dodgers swinging aggressively. Freddie Freeman flied out, then Tommy Edman didn’t hesitate to hit a home run to left-center to give the Dodgers the lead. A Will Smith flyout and Max Muncy groundout ended the inning, but the Dodgers were continuing their aggressive approach against Skubal.

The Dodgers might have the advantage on paper, but the Tigers don’t care too much about teams that “should” be better than them. Ryan Kreidler singled to start the third, then advanced to second on an Ibanez groundout. A Torres flyout got Kreidler to third, and a Greene popout ended the inning, but the team was really showing some early aggression. In the bottom of the inning, two groundouts almost directly to Colt Keith on first put the pressure on none other than Shohei Ohtani, who only knows how to deliver, and he naturally singled. A Betts single got Ohtani to third, but a Teoscar Hernandez strikeout ended the inning.

Spencer Torkelson loves a little deja vu, so he walked to start the fourth. Manuel Margot followed with a single. Colt Keith and Javier Baez were back-to-back outs, but the Baez groundout managed to advance both baserunners into scoring position. Jake Rogers walked to load the bases. Then a wild pitch from Snell gave Torkelson his shot at redemption as he was able to come home from third and tie the game up.

In the bottom half, Freddie Freeman struck out, then Tommy Edman hit a ball to deep center that Ryan Kreidler chased down and narrowly avoided a collision with Margot for the best catch we’ve seen this season. (Yes, very small sample size, but it was a great catch with a 10 percent probability of success per Statcast.) Will Smith singled, but the Dodgers weren’t able to bring him home.

Gleyber Torres got a one-out single, then a Riley Greene line drive single got Torres to third and Greene to second. Torkelson got his third walk of the night, and it was clear that Dave Roberts was getting uneasy about leaving Snell in the game. He should have been nervous, because Margot hit a sac fly to score Torres and give the Tigers the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth Andy Pages hit a one-out single, and then got eliminated on a force-out off the bat of Ohtani. Mookie Betts drew a walk. Then Teoscar Hernandez made the Tigers pay with a three-run home run putting the Dodgers up 4-2. Skubal had fed him changeups early in previous at-bats, but challenged him with a heater and missed right down the middle. Not a good pitch.

Blake Snell was out, replaced by Ben Casparius. Hinch made a move as well, pinch-hitting Zach McKinstry for Javier Baez. McKinstry walked, followed by a Jake Rogers single. A ripe opportunity like that saw Hinch ready to deploy Kerry Carpenter to pinch hit for Kreidler. Snell dug deep for this one, and Carpenter popped out with a good old-fashioned infield fly rule. A strikeout and groundout ended the inning because we just can’t have nice things.

Heading into the bottom of the sixth, Tarik Skubal’s Opening Day was done, giving way to John Brebbia. Skubal’s final line for the game was 5.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 HR on 80 pitches. Skubal looked good, but the Dodgers were aggressive and got so powerful hits on pitches in the zone. Brebbia got the Dodgers out 1-2-3.

The reliever shuffle continued, this time Alex Vesia came in for the Dodgers. Then Spencer Torkelson hit a one-out home run, because we absolutely all predicted Torkelson getting on in every single at-bat today. Two outs followed, but the Tigers were back within one run.

In the bottom of the seventh the Tigers turned pitching duties over to Brenan Hanifee. Hanifee got two outs back-to-back, but then Ohtani came up to the plate after 45 minutes of ESPN coverage about how great Ohtani is, and he hit a two-run home run. A Betts groundout ended the inning, but it seems likely the Ohtani bomb was probably a nail in the coffin for the Tigers for the night.

Tanner Scott was the next Dodgers reliever for the night, and he decided to prove my naysaying wrong. Zach McKinstry tripled to start the inning, then Carpenter hit a one-out sac fly to bring McKinstry home and the Tigers were once again within one run. They wouldn’t get it in this inning though, as Ibanez flied out to end the inning. Bottom of the eighth and Beau Brieske was in for the Tigers. Can we just pause while Brieske is churning through the order, to talk about how ugly these blue and gold Dodgers uniforms are? Hideous. Brieske got the Dodgers and their ugly uniforms out in order, showing some excellent changeups.

Blake Treinen was next out of the Dodgers’ pen, and Gleyber Torres singled to start the top of the ninth. Torres then stole second with no throw attempt. Torkelson then continued his incredible night with yet another walk. This is a good time to say the Dodgers’ organist is incredible. No shade, no complaints, so good. Trey Sweeney came in to pinch-hit for Manuel Margot but struck out swinging over a nasty Treinen slider. With two outs in the top of the ninth it all came down to Colt Keith, and he got jammed and popped out to end the game with a Dodgers win. The Tigers certainly didn’t hand them an easy win. One bad pitch from Skubal and some of their usual struggles with runners in scoring position did them in, but they were still gritty.

Final: Dodgers 5, Tigers 4