No excuses, but prolonged slump starting to eat at Tigers' Dillon Dingler

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dillon Dingler pulled out his phone and called up Salvador Perez’s Baseball Reference page.

“Look at this,” he said, scrolling to the standard fielding section.

Perez, the venerable Royals’ icon, led the American League in games caught from 2014 through 2016, catching 146, 139 and 128 games, respectively. He caught 124 games at age 31 in 2021.

“That’s amazing,” Dingler said. “He’s incredible.”

That’s why Dingler, as he’s fighting through his worst offensive lull of the season, won’t accept any excuses about fatigue. He was not in the starting lineup Sunday, Aug. 23 in the series finale against the Royals. It was just the ninth game he’s not started, out of 130. He leads the American League with 94 games behind the plate and has also been DH 27 times.

“It’s not fatigue, I don’t want that to be an excuse,” he said. “I feel a little off at the plate. But I was grinding more so in June (physically) than I am now. I have no problems with my legs. Once you hit late July and August, your legs kind of go into cruise control. Getting to this point is the hard thing.

“Obviously, there’s some aches and pains here and there.”

He was asked about mental fatigue. Again, no.

“I feel like that’s one of the strongest points of my game,” Dingler said. “It’s tough when you search to get back to where you were, especially where I was in June and even into July. It’s tough to find that happy medium between grinding and trying to do too much. You can do too much at this point and it can be detrimental.”

Dingler before the Aug. 22 game had another marathon early batting practice session. He’s had several of those during this stretch.

“You can take too many swings,” he said. “You can spend too much time trying to figure something out. But it happens quickly. It could click at any time.”

Dingler was slashing .278/.341/.536 with an .877 OPS on Aug. 6. After going 4-for-56 with 14 strikeouts and just two extra-base hits over the last 14 games, the slash-line is at .253/.318/.484 with an .801 OPS.

The skid has coincided with the Tigers’ dropping nine of those 14 games and sliding out of playoff contention.

“These are called the dog days for a reason,” manager AJ Hinch said. “We ask a lot out of him and he can handle it. This isn’t tough love (playing him every day), it’s a ton of belief. Every time he goes up there, he can impact the game. He doesn’t need to play catchup for the previous 40 or 50 plate appearances. He just needs to be himself. There is no panic for me about Dillon Dingler.”

Dingler isn’t panicking, either. But being unable to produce during this critical stretch for the team is eating at him.

“That’s the toughest part of it,” he said. “They need me and maybe that’s adding some pressure or adding a little weight. But I’m trying not to see it that way, even though it’s pretty glaring. We’re not playing well and me being in the heart of the order and not producing right now is definitely the tough part.

“I’m trying to get out of it as quick as possible.”

You trust that he will.

[email protected]

@cmccosky

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: No excuses, but prolonged slump starting to eat at Tigers' Dillon Dingler

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →