WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Dillon Dingler hit a grand slam in Detroit's seven-run eighth inning and the Tigers opened their longest trip of the season with a 13-1 victory over the Athletics on Friday night.
Kevin McGonigle homered and drove in two runs, and fellow 2023 draft pick Max Clark had three hits, including an RBI double in the big eighth inning to help Detroit get the win in his big-league debut.
Click to Gallery
Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler, not shown, celebrates with Ben Malgeri (53), Kevin McGonigle (7), and Javier Báez, not shown, after hitting a grand slam during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Athletics pitcher Jeffrey Springs throws to the Detroit Tigers during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tyler Holton throws to the Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Max Clark hits a single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler, not shown, celebrates with Ben Malgeri (53), Kevin McGonigle (7), and Javier Báez, not shown, after hitting a grand slam during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler hits a grand slam during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
The Tigers got a strong performance from their bullpen after deciding to scratch scheduled starter Casey Mize in case a trade develops before Monday’s deadline. Tyler Holton started and allowed one run in two innings. Ty Madden (1-0) allowed two hits in three scoreless innings to get the win.
The Tigers won for just the second time in six games to start a three-city West Coast swing and moved within 3 1/2 games of the final wild-card spot in the American League.
McGonigle tied the game with a solo homer off Jeffrey Springs (3-11) in the third inning, He added a sacrifice fly in the fourth in an inning aided by Clark's first career hit.
The 21-year-old Clark, one of the top prospects in baseball, then added the RBI double in the eighth and another double in the ninth. He became the third Tigers player ever with at least three hits and two extra-base hits in his debut. McGonigle did it earlier this year and Billy Bean did it in 1987.
Dingler broke the game open against Luis Morales when he hit his first career grand slam. Ben Malgeri hit his first career homer, a two-run shot in the ninth inning as the A's finished 5-19 in July.
Springs allowed four hits, five walks and two runs in four innings and fell to 0-11 in his last 18 starts.
LH Framber Valdez (5-7, 4.53 ERA) was set to start Saturday for Detroit against RH Jack Perkins (2-6, 6.45).
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Athletics pitcher Jeffrey Springs throws to the Detroit Tigers during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tyler Holton throws to the Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Max Clark hits a single during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler, not shown, celebrates with Ben Malgeri (53), Kevin McGonigle (7), and Javier Báez, not shown, after hitting a grand slam during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics, Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Detroit Tigers' Dillon Dingler hits a grand slam during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Friday, July 31, 2026, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
LANTON, France (AP) — With his watering can and bucket, Jean-François Pauner meanders from one small fire to the next along a forest floor, dousing small flare-ups of wildfires that have swept through woodlands four times the size of Paris in southwestern France.
“This is the first fire I'm experiencing real-time, and I can tell you it’s vicious,” said Pauner, 64. “It’s underground, it comes out at any moment, and no matter how much we try to extinguish it, re-extinguish it, re-extinguish it, it keeps restarting.”
“It’s like a steamroller that’s constantly, constantly rolling,” said Pauner, wearing shorts, boots and sunglasses on a string around his neck on a road through cultivated pine trees, as the ground smoldered.
Pauner is among the untold numbers of volunteers who have mobilized to support firefighters battling the biggest wildfires in years in France.
“I’m protecting my forest, and my home,” he said, pouring his watering can into a smoking ditch as if watering a garden, then huffing in the heat.
The wildfires that tore through cultivated forests on an Atlantic coast also known for towering sand dunes and tourist resorts devastated 42,000 hectares (about 162 square miles) west of Bordeaux, driving nearly a quarter-million people out of their homes and vacation sites.
Many other places in France have been hit by fires this summer, including in the Mediterranean Var region where a blaze in the Gros Bessillon mountain ridge flared up again on Friday, driven by violent winds, local authorities said. Several towns in the area were evacuated.
Europe is facing an extremely hot summer, fueling wildfires from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. The United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Greece and Turkey battled blazes this week.
As cooler, more humid air moved into southwest France this week, authorities allowed two-thirds of the 224,000 evacuees to return home, including some more on Friday.
But the ground still simmers in many places.
“It’s stabilized, but not totally stopped,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told RTL radio. “Hot spots remain.”
Volunteers like Pauner — what he calls “little eyes” on watch to report flare-ups to firefighters — do what they can with limited resources. Others have mobilized their trucks and giant jerrycans to supply water to fire crews.
Prolonged drought and climate change have created fire-prone conditions. Pauner said the region endured more than two months without significant rainfall, leaving vegetation exceptionally dry.
In the smoking forests, fire crews used rakes to dig down into the smoldering forest floor so buried embers can be doused with water, a long and painstaking job. Ukraine became the latest country to send help, dispatching 70 people and 10 vehicles in the coming days, Nunez said.
Investigators suspect that contractors clearing away vegetation inadvertently ignited the blaze last week. But other fires have been attributed to arsonists or criminal negligence.
Nunez said police have made 308 arrests in connection with blazes this summer — more than 120 of them involving minors — and that 33 people have either been convicted or are being held pending court rulings.
Blazes continued in other parts of Europe.
Many parts of Greece were listed at high or extreme risk of wildfires, with strong winds. Three Greek firefighters died fighting fires this week on the southern island of Crete.
Firefighters were tackling 73 wildfires around the country, 51 of which broke out on Friday, Fire department spokesman Col. Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said.
The fire department and coast guard used boats to evacuate more than 250 people from one of the largest fires, in Boeotia, and evacuation orders were issued for several other fires, including one on the western fringes of the Greek capital.
Gale-force winds were hampering aircraft from dumping water on the wildfires, he said.
In England, where half the country is gripped by drought, firefighters battled a wildfire on an east coast heath in Suffolk, near a nuclear power station that fire services said wasn't threatened. More than 100 firefighters were deployed.
“I wouldn’t say it is under control,” said Henry Griffin, a fire officer.
A firefighter unrolls a hose as he battles fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Firefighters pull hoses as they battle fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A picture taken from the French Civil Security rescue coordination helicopter shows a firefighting plane dropping water during a wildfire in Le Porge, France, Firday, July 31, 2026. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool Photo via AP)
A firefighter works to extinguish fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Firefighters put hoses away as they battle fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A firefighter works to extinguished fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A picture taken from the French Civil Security rescue coordination helicopter shows shows a member of the Civil Security looking at the surrounding area near Le Porge, France, Firday, July 31, 2026. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool Photo via AP)
A firefighter works to extinguished fires near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Firefighters pay respect to their comrades killed during a fight against a forest fire in Merignac three days before, in Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
FILE - A plane releases fire retardant as it flies over a forest near Blagon, during wildfires in southwestern France, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva, File)
FILE - A firefighter walks in front of burning trees as a wildfire rages near Marcheprime, outside, Bordeaux, France, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva, File)
