ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Almost every Detroit Tigers hitter looks improved through three games in June, but Dillon Dinger continues to go above and beyond. He put the Tigers on his back for a sweep of one of MLB’s best teams.

The Tigers scored in each of the first four innings en route to a 7-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, June 3, in the finale of the three-game series at Tropicana Field, sweeping the series for a three-game winning streak.

It’s the first sweep for the Tigers since April 14-16.

Dingler hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning.

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Facing the Rays, Dingler hit .462 (6-for-13) with three home runs and nine RBIs across 14 plate appearances. The 27-year-old drove in four runs apiece in Monday’s opener and Wednesday’s finale.

He is hitting .241 with 14 homers and an .830 OPS in 56 games.

The Tigers improved to 25-38, while the Rays, who entered Wednesday with the best record in the American League, dropped to 36-23. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Tigers are 10½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.

More importantly, the Tigers experienced a run-scoring breakthrough at Tropicana Field.

The offense scored 81 runs (with 18 home runs) through 28 games in May, only to score 25 runs (with 10 home runs) in the first three games in June.

On the mound

Right-hander Troy Melton struggled early on.

But he dominated throughout the middle and late innings.

The 25-year-old didn’t throw a first-pitch strike to the first eight batters he faced, and the Rays took advantage of his command issues by scoring one run apiece in a 19-pitch first inning and a 17-pitch second inning.

The result of those runs: The Rays tied the game, 1-1, on Yandy Díaz’s RBI single in the first and tied the game again, 2-2, on Cedric Mullins’ solo home run in the second.

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Melton suddenly threw a first-pitch strike for the first time to Victor Mesa Jr., immediately following Mullins’s homer and Nick Fortes’ single.

He faced the minimum 21 batters after Fortes’ single, needing 14 pitches in the third inning, 10 in the fourth, eight in the fifth, six in the sixth and eight in the seventh and 12 in the eighth.

His only blemish during that stretch came on a leadoff walk to Jonathan Aranda in the third inning, losing a nine-pitch battle. He bounced back by erasing Aranda on the bases with a double play, then he struck out Richie Palacios.

Melton owns a 1.74 ERA in three starts since returning May 24 from the injured list after suffering right elbow inflammation in spring training.

At the plate

The story continues to be the offense.

It’s a small sample size, but the Tigers keep hitting in June.

The Tigers grabbed the lead in the first inning for the fourth game in a row, courtesy of Gleyber Torres’ leadoff double and Dingler’s RBI single.

• A former Detroit People Mover official is accused of accepting $300,000 in bribes.
• The official allegedly approved phony invoices for IT work that was never performed.
• The businessman who submitted the invoices owned a home restoration company with no IT experience.

More than a decade ago, a juror in a Detroit public corruption trial that ended with three men getting convicted in a $97 million bribery scheme exclaimed: “Hopefully this is the end of this nightmare … this is a whole new beginning.”

It didn’t quite go that way as the following years saw two city councilmen indictments, a dozen school principal bribery convictions, a towing scandal, as well as a toxic dirt and demolition fiasco.

And now there’s this.

In a new criminal filing in U.S. District Court, a former city official in charge of the Detroit People Mover shuttle is charged with taking $300,000 in bribes from a businessmen who reportedly billed the city for work that was never performed — all with the help of his connected associate.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, June 2 in U.S. District Court, the alleged scheme involves 55-year-old Michael Anderson, a former director with the Detroit Transportation Corporation, who allegedly helped Detroit businessman Terrence Parker bill the city for nearly $305,000 in information technology work that was never performed.

Moreover, court records show, Parker’s company has no experience with IT work, but rather performs restoration work on homes damaged by storms and natural disasters. Still, the FBI says, Parker managed to submit 22 phony invoices to the DTC for IT work, including fixing computer monitors — and got paid for all of it. That’s because Anderson was approving his phony invoices from the inside, the government says, and getting money in exchange for his help.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The Detroit Tigers shut down two of their shortstops on the injured list.

The biggest name?

Javier Báez.

The 33-year-old has been shut down from baseball activities after meeting with a specialist Monday, June 1, about the lack of progress in recovery from a right high ankle sprain, which he suffered April 28. (The Tigers also shut down Trey Sweeney, who has been sidelined with a right shoulder strain since spring training and needs further medical evaluation.)

“We’re still dissecting all the diagnoses and what’s going on with him,” manager A.J. Hinch said of Báez before Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. “He’s just not progressing very quickly, and right now, rest is still part of the equation.”

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The Tigers tried to start Báez’s return-to-play progression with running, hitting and fielding drills.

He still felt symptoms of the high ankle sprain.

“I’m not a doctor,” Hinch said, “but I understand it watching Javy go through a very slow process of the swelling and the bleeding and all the things that go on inside that type of sprain.”

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How long until Báez returns to baseball activities?

The timeline is unknown.

He isn’t expected to need surgery, which means he should return at some point after the All-Star break in 2026.

“From what I was told, we’re on the right path and everything is going well,” Hinch said. “These are just really tricky. The path that we’re on, we’re just going to go slow. Baseball activity is going to slow down because we’ve got to make sure we’re taking care of the symptoms.”

Before the injury, Báez played in 24 games for the Tigers, hitting .256 with two home runs, two walks and 16 strikeouts. The injury occurred while running to first base against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, as he tried to avoid a tag with an awkward slide.

The 13-year MLB veteran’s contract with the Tigers runs until November 2027. He is in the penultimate season of a six-year, $140 million contract from December 2021.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.