How an IL stint turned Carpenter's season around 

DETROIT -- Kerry Carpenter had every excuse to look at his injured-list stint earlier this season as a setback. Instead, he took it as an opportunity.

He learned the value of patience. He learned the value of trust. Not patience to get through an injury, but patience to commit to a pitch and trust that he can be on time for offspeed pitches.

As he rounded the bases on his go-ahead three-run home run during the Tigers' 6-4 comeback victory over the Royals at Comerica Park on Monday, his second homer in as many days, he could feel rewarded. After struggling with everything but fastballs in his first month, Carpenter has been making opponents pay for flipping breaking balls and changeups on him. Most of that payback has been opposite-field hits, but the seventh-inning changeup he got from Taylor Clarke was in a spot where he could crush it. All he had to do was stay on time.

“I was just trying to be on time with the heater and see the offspeed up,” Carpenter said. “He finally left one over the middle and I got to it.”

The seventh-inning at-bat was a microcosm of what he has seen this year. Only one of Clarke’s five pitches to him was a fastball, and that was an 0-1 pitch up and out of the zone. Carpenter declined that, but he was off on the two changeups at the bottom of the zone, fouling off one and whiffing on another.

“I was getting going a little late and kind of jumpy the first couple swings, wasn't seeing it great,” Carpenter said. “So I just tried to start early and trust it would get to me.”

After a 1-2 slider in the dirt, Clarke went back to the changeup but hung it. Carpenter swung so hard he nearly fell over the plate. He passed it off as a celebration as the ball soared a Statcast-projected 381 feet down the right-field line.

“I was trying to keep my balance,” Carpenter laughed afterwards.

He has found his balance at the plate after some hitter soul-searching during his shoulder injury. He hit for extra bases in April but not much else, with a .217 average and 22 strikeouts in 75 plate appearances. He had 13 hits off fastballs, including five doubles and four homers, but just two singles on offspeed and nothing on breaking balls. Moreover, opponents were throwing him more offspeed than last year.

So while he strengthened his shoulder, he also worked on strengthening his patience to see the ball longer before making his decision to swing.

“I don't have to make quite as quick of a decision on a pitch,” he said, “so it usually helps my pitch selection, helps my direction, my bat path. It keeps me on offspeed really well.”

Carpenter saw almost as many breaking balls as fastballs during his rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo, according to Statcast data compiled by Prospects Live. He went 6-for-35 with 12 strikeouts in nine games for the Mud Hens, but after a bout of early strikeouts, he started seeing pitches better.

“What got me to be such a good hitter in the first place was the ability to use the opposite field,” he said. “When I was on rehab, I was like, 'I'm going to use this time to actually work on stuff.'”

That opposite-field work paid off when he rejoined the Tigers, slashing singles to left. He has almost as many hits off breaking balls (five) as fastballs (six) since his return. Monday’s damage was pure pull power after seeing pitches all night.

Carpenter’s first plate appearance Monday against Royals starter Jordan Lyles was a nine-pitch walk in which he fouled off all five pitches in the strike zone and took everything off the plate. His fourth-inning at-bat saw more fastballs on the fringe -- one he missed and another he grounded to first on a full count. He just mistimed a 2-2 fastball at the top of the zone in the sixth inning and flied out to left.

“I felt good all game,” Carpenter said. “I was seeing the ball well, taking good pitches, swinging at good pitches. I don't get down when I get out and the at-bat doesn't go my way, so I was pretty confident going into the last one.”

Once Clarke got him to two strikes in the seventh, he was ready.

“I'm not sitting offspeed or anything,” Carpenter said, “but I know that that's what people are trying to do to get me out.”