{"id":652016,"date":"2026-03-30T06:44:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T06:44:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:44:03","slug":"detroit-tigers-rookie-kevin-mcgonigle-gets-last-laugh-after-hr-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652016\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle gets last laugh after HR robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{29aaef12-f1b5-41f2-9dce-b911342d5160}{147}\" paraid=\"151729583\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/detroit-tigers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Tigers<\/a> rookie Kevin McGonigle looked over at second base, where\u00a0Jackson Merrill stood \u2013 grinning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{c847b67d-e822-4913-9712-4ac7c6e0b4d9}{220}\" paraid=\"188273309\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">A half-inning earlier Friday at Petco Park, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/mlb\/san-diego-padres\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Diego Padres<\/a> center fielder\u00a0robbed McGonigle of his first career home run.\u00a0Merrill\u00a0rose above the center-field wall to snare the line drive.\u00a0After\u00a0doubling to\u00a0lead off the third inning,\u00a0Merrill exchanged pleasantries with his defensive victim.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{09c50979-459f-4752-ba74-6367a0ac937f}{5}\" paraid=\"188247676\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">As if to rub it in on his new rival, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WriterHawkins\/status\/2037737289393008993?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Merrill held up four fingers<\/a>, signifying\u00a0his 4-for-5 effort\u00a0McGonigle\u00a0enjoyed during his\u00a0MLB debut\u00a0Thursday.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{5964aa35-4c0f-4bde-be0a-25a8bd69662a}{132}\" paraid=\"1538024556\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">McGonigle ended up getting the last laugh\u00a0on the Padres.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rookie Kevin McGonigle making early mark\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{29aaef12-f1b5-41f2-9dce-b911342d5160}{141}\" paraid=\"1386491555\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">With the Tigers trailing the Padres, 2-1, with two outs in the\u00a0eighth\u00a0inning, McGonigle faced left-hander\u00a0Wandy Peralta\u00a0with the\u00a0bases loaded.\u00a0He\u00a0worked the count full and delivered a line-drive single to right-center field, scoring Colt Keith\u00a0and\u00a0Gleyber\u00a0Torres.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{418df3fb-e323-4e44-940a-5da68b3a1afc}{242}\" paraid=\"1442066573\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Cather Dillon\u00a0Dingler followed with a run-scoring single as the Tigers forced the Padres\u00a0relievers\u00a0into releasing more than 40 pitches during the four-run stanza. The\u00a0Tigres\u2019\u00a0organization stressed more competitive at-bats\u00a0during the offseason. The extra attention to detail\u00a0was\u00a0evident\u00a0during the 5-2 victory over the Padres\u00a0on Friday, the Tigers\u2019 second straight to open the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{174ad4a9-c0ea-4e28-8114-24b7c6a31117}{150}\" paraid=\"1544426079\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Fielding\u00a0a\u00a0growing\u00a0talent\u00a0like McGonigle, MLB\u2019s No. 2-ranked preseason prospect,\u00a0is proving to\u00a0provide\u00a0an\u00a0early spark to the Tigers\u2019 lineup. McGonigle has collected\u00a0five hits in his opening eight at-bats.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-US\" paraeid=\"{9f61a59c-ca39-419d-9fe4-15462a2f9ce1}{155}\" paraid=\"216971499\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\">His first home run may have\u00a0been swiped\u00a0by Merrill\u00a0early in the game, but the\u00a0composed\u00a0rookie\u00a0delivered his first game-winning\u00a0hit\u00a0late.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Tigers rookie Kevin McGonigle looked over at second base, where\u00a0Jackson Merrill stood \u2013 grinning.\u00a0\u00a0 A half-inning earlier&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-652016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116316774495604190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}