DETROIT — Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch was asked about the impact Max Clark can have on a game just with his speed tool alone. It was the perfect setup for Hinch to needle the talented rookie. “What’s the phrase he used about coming around first base (Friday night?),” Hinch asked, with a grin. Clark, on his fifth-inning triple, said he was “Cadillacking” around first base. “A Cadillac is ...

Kevin McGonigle #7 of the Detroit Tigers watches his ninth inning RBI single to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 at Comerica Park on Aug. 29, 2026, in Detroit, Michigan.

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images North America/TNS

DETROIT — Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch was asked about the impact Max Clark can have on a game just with his speed tool alone. It was the perfect setup for Hinch to needle the talented rookie.

“What’s the phrase he used about coming around first base (Friday night?),” Hinch asked, with a grin.

Clark, on his fifth-inning triple, said he was “Cadillacking” around first base.

“A Cadillac is something cool to cruise with,” Hinch said. “But Porsches are great when you go fast. I love the Porsche version of him. When he gets going, it is impactful.”

Clark is still figuring out how to best use his elite speed, but he continues to show exciting flashes of it.

He went home to third in 11.08 seconds on the triple. Only Parker Meadows has beaten that speed since Statcast began tracking that data. But in the Tigers' 2-1 walk-off win against the Los Angeles Dodgers Saturday— on a Kevin McGonigle single in front of a second straight sellout crowd at Comerica Park (40,022) — he showed another way it can be impactful.

After Javier Báez led off the third inning with a walk, Clark dropped a bunt. It was meant to be a sacrifice but third baseman Max Muncy, acknowledging Clark’s speed, rushed the play and booted the ball.

“Speed puts so much pressure on the opponent to be perfect,” Hinch said. “We’re talking about handling ground balls, talking about going first to third, talking about shortening the amount of time to defend a player like that. It’s unique. And Max is just scratching the surface of his impact.”

The Tigers cashed in a run, thanks to Clark’s speed in that third inning on Gleyber Torres’ ground-rule double to right-center. Had the ball not bounced over the wall, Clark would have scored from first.

As it happened, he was stranded at third when Dodgers lefty Blake Snell ended the inning by striking out Dillon Dingler and Eduardo Valencia.

Clark’s wheels factored in again in the fifth. The Tigers still clinging to a 1-0 lead, he shot a ball over Muncy’s head into left field and turned a single into a hustle double, beating the throw from left fielder Teoscar Hernandez.

“We’re trying to nudge him off first base to run a little more and he’s been a little apprehensive, not wanting to make mistakes,” Hinch said. “All the nuances of how to use his speed are being learned right now. When you see him running in open spaces, he’s top tier. He’s going to learn how to use it and trust that he can do even more than he’s doing right now.”

Clark didn’t move off second base in the fifth inning. Again Snell, who struck out 10 in five innings, bowed his neck and punched out Torres and Dingler to strand him.

But to that point, Clark’s wheels provided all the Tigers’ action on the bases and the slim lead right-hander Keider Montero was protecting.

Montero, given 10 days between starts to ease some of the arm fatigue he was dealing with after pitching a career-high number of innings, was brilliant for five innings, allowing only a single and a walk.

In the sixth, though, Alek Thomas led off with an opposite-field double and went to third on a groundout by Shohei Ohtani. Freddie Freeman’s lined single to right tied the score.

Montero left after Mookie Betts reached on a knuckling line drive that Hao-Yu Lee couldn’t snare at third base.

Lefty Tyler Holton cleaned up the mess, inducing a 6-4-3 double-play from Tommy Edman, and handed the baton to rookie lefty Andrew Sears.

In his second big-league appearance, he gave up a leadoff double to Kyle Tucker in the seventh, then set down seven straight Dodgers hitters and left with a runner on first and two outs in the ninth.

Kenley Jansen took over to face Hernandez. After first baseman Colt Keith and right fielder Zach McKinstry miscommunicated and let a foul pop fall safely, Hernandez drove a ball 396-feet to the fence in left-center. Báez, playing left field, made a sensational running catch to save the run.

Báez led off the bottom of the ninth with a double off lefty Jack Dreyer and moved to third on another successful bunt by Clark. The Dodgers walked Torres intentionally and Lee unintentionally. And with one out and the bases loaded, McGonigle, in a 0 for 16 skid, drove a winning single to the gap in left-center.

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