CLEVELAND — The buzz hadn’t stopped in the Progressive Field crowd from Jonathan Schoop’s go-ahead home run, the consternation still simmering over Mustard’s latest loss in the Hot Dog Derby, when Kerry Carpenter jumped a first-pitch fastball from Eli Morgan in the sixth inning. He sent it to nearly the same spot as his double off Guardians starter Xzavion Curry four innings earlier, but this one kept carrying — over the fence.
“I noticed to [Harold Castro], he was leaving the changeup up, and then Schoopy had a changeup out, and I was like, ‘He might just try to run a heater by me first pitch,’” Carpenter said. “So I was just ready to try to turn it around.”
He was aggressive, opportunistic and ultimately dangerous, the kind of approach that made him the first Minor League slugger to reach 30 home runs this season and carried the former 19th-round Draft pick from Double-A Erie to Triple-A Toledo to Detroit. He was rewarded with his first Major League home run
“So cool,” said catcher Tucker Barnhart, who watched from the on-deck circle. “You remember those, at least I do, and how that felt.”
This is the instant offense the Tigers hoped to see when they brought up Carpenter last week. After a rough start, he might finally be settling in, just in time to help Detroit salvage a doubleheader split Monday night with a 7-5 win in the nightcap.
The Tigers badly needed that kind of impact. They were held to a Harold Castro RBI groundout and struck out 13 times in a 4-1 loss in Game 1. Their eight-game losing streak included 100 strikeouts and just two home runs. According to research on baseball-reference, it’s the most strikeouts with two homers or less in an eight-game stretch by an AL/NL team in the dead-ball era (since 1920).
“We needed a win in the worst way. That’s pretty obvious,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Our guys had great energy all day. It was a tough first game. It’s a quick turnaround, 40 minutes afterwards, and guys came out playing.”
Carpenter had been responsible for seven strikeouts in that stretch, including back-to-back three-strikeout games against Cleveland last week at Comerica Park for a rough welcome to his big league career.
When Carpenter finally picked up his first big league hit last Saturday, connecting with a Liam Hendriks fastball for a single up the middle, his family in the stands reacted with a mix of joy, tears and relief.
“We joked with him, ‘That helps. You have a lot better chance of getting hits if you make contact,’” Hinch said.
Carpenter’s family headed home as the Tigers left Chicago. Yet with his return to the lineup Monday night, Carpenter’s confidence was still with him.
At least Monday, Carpenter had the advantage of familiarity with Curry, whom he had faced at Double-A Erie and gone 3-for-5 against with a double. Carpenter’s second-inning drive might have cleared the fence with a little more altitude, but instead clattered off the padding in front of the Guardians’ bullpen as Carpenter rumbled into second, setting up Barnhart’s RBI single.
“It definitely loosened me up a little bit, just seeing the ball, [doing] what I wanted [with it] and making good contact with it was key,” Carpenter said.
After Schoop made Morgan pay for a changeup over the plate, Carpenter did the same with a fastball near the top of the zone. By contrast, he saw all cutters and offspeed pitches from veteran reliever Bryan Shaw in the eighth, yet battled out of a 1-2 count to get a 3-2 cutter over the plate. He deposited it into short center field, just in front of Will Benson and Steven Kwan, furthering a four-hit, two-run inning that helped seal the game for Detroit.
By game’s end, the Tigers had 15 hits, their third-highest total in a game this season. Their nine strikeouts marked their first game in single digits since Aug. 7 against the Rays.
Carpenter, meanwhile, fell a triple shy of the cycle. After going 0-for-10 to start his career, he has hits in four of his last five at-bats. He’s the first Tiger to post a three-hit game with multiple extra-base hits within his first four big league contests since Brent Clevlen went 3-for-5 with two homers against Tampa Bay on Aug. 1, 2006.
Just as big, Carpenter did it in a win, his first in the big leagues.
“That means the world,” Carpenter said of his contribution. “It’s really cool to be a part of it. I’m confident that it’s going to keep going. I feel really good.”