With walk-off HR, Carpenter helps make club history

DETROIT – Kerry Carpenter joked before Tuesday’s Tigers-Guardians doubleheader that he’d wear two layers of long sleeves to try to keep warm in freezing temperatures. He heated up just in time for the Tigers, who extended their winning streak to four games on Carpenter’s ninth-inning walk-off homer for a 4-3 win.

It was the Tigers' third consecutive walk-off win, tying a franchise record.

Carpenter, whose fifth-inning double tied the game, battled Cleveland reliever James Karinchak for nine pitches, fouling off three consecutive high fastballs at 95+ mph. Karinchak’s ninth-pitch heater was close enough to the top of the zone for Carpenter to connect, sending it deep to right for his third home run of the season, all of them in his last four games.

“He's a stud and he has a good heater, good curveball, but it's just two pitches,” said Carpenter, who faced Karinchak twice last August with a walk and a strikeout. “I was just trying to see it deep and trust myself to get to the heater up, because I knew that's where he kind of wants to go with it. He threw me three or four in a row right there at the end. I finally got to one.”

Carpenter’s three-hit performance included Detroit’s two extra-base hits, scattered amidst a dozen singles, half of them ground balls. Riley Greene and Eric Haase had three ground-ball singles each, the latter as part of a 4-for-4 performance.

Carpenter continues to step up in a run-production spot for Detroit, batting cleanup regularly as Miguel Cabrera -- who turned 40 on Tuesday -- settles into a lower spot in the lineup. He entered Tuesday ranked fourth among Major League hitters in barrel percentage while rating among the top 10 percent of MLB hitters in expected slugging percentage and the top 17 percent in hard-hit rate, according to Statcast.

Just as important, he has gained an understanding of how pitchers are trying to approach him and the adjustments he needs to make in order to decrease his chase rate.

“It's nice to be having good at-bats like I've been having,” Carpenter said. “The results are coming now, so it's fun and I know I can keep it going. I just have to stay locked in.”

It’s an impressive follow-up to the former 19th-round pick’s breakthrough last season, when his 30-homer campaign in the Minor Leagues earned him his Major League debut in August.

“Kerry’s a guy that believes in himself,” said Tigers starter Matthew Boyd, who picked up a no-decision in a five-inning outing. “I didn’t know much about him until I got here [last offseason], but his belief, being a guy who wasn’t necessarily a top prospect, still understanding and believing in himself and understanding how to retool his game and knowing he was capable of home. Battling in Spring Training and sticking to what he knows he can do, it’s impressive. No surprise that he’s the guy coming up big in situations like this.”

Alex Lange picked up the win for Detroit in a scoreless ninth after three scoreless innings from Mason Englert. The Tigers bullpen has tossed 11 scoreless innings over its last two games.