Milwaukee – The odds didn’t seem in his favor.
Kerry Carpenter was the only left-handed hitter in the Tigers’ starting lineup Tuesday against Brewers’ lefty starter Eric Lauer. Lefties had just one hit against Lauer this season. And Carpenter had only one at-bat against a lefty this year and it ended with a strikeout.
Baseball, man.
Carpenter came up with two on and one out in the second inning and poleaxed a 92-mph fastball from Lauer into the right-field seats. His fourth home run of the year triggered a four-run inning, the Tigers’ best single-inning outburst of the season.
But that was all the scoring they did. What were the odds that would be enough?
Thanks again to some gritty work by the bullpen, the Tigers were able to hold off the Brewers and take their second straight game in American Family Field, 4-3.
Rookie Mason Englert took over in the sixth after Rowdy Tellez’s solo home run off Tyler Alexander made it a one-run game. And he was sturdy.
He dispatched six straight before Luke Voit led off the eighth with a double. Undaunted, Englert struck out Willy Adames and then won a nine-pitch fight with Tellez, finally punching him out with a 3-2 curveball.
Right-hander Jason Foley finished the inning freezing William Contreras with a 98-mph heater.
Foley finished it off for his second save, working a clean ninth.
It was a grind for Tigers starter Spencer Turnbull. He had a difficult time locating his pitches. He walked three and went to three-ball counts on eight hitters in four innings. In the first inning he threw 22 pitches and only nine strikes.
He did minimize the damage, though. He gave up two runs, both scoring on ground outs.
After allowing two singles and throwing a wild pitch to start the third inning, Turnbull got Christian Yelich to hit a grounder to shortstop Javier Baez. A run scored but Baez threw out Joey Wiemer at third base.
In the fourth, Turnbull walked Contreras after having him in an 0-2 hole, and gave up a one-out double to Brice Turang. Again, Turnbull escaped the big inning, one run scoring on a ground ball by Owen Miller.
His pitch count was at 74 pitches and his night was over.
Alexander pitched a clean fifth inning with two strikeouts. But he left a 2-2 cutter up and over the plate to left-handed hitting Rowdy Tellez leading off the sixth and Tellez put into the right-field seats – 4-3.
The Tigers ended up 3 for 10 with runners in scoring position. Matt Vierling had three singles and Spencer Torkelson had two hits and an RBI.
The Tigers used Jose Cisnero, Tyler Holton, Foley and Alex Lange for an inning each Monday to lock down a 4-2 win.
On Tuesday, manager AJ Hinch entrusted rookie right-hander Mason Englert to bridge the game to the ninth.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky