With right approach, Carpenter may help Tigers find lefty-lefty balance

DETROIT -- Tigers manager A.J. Hinch’s penchant for playing platoon matchups gained almost meme-like proportions early in the 2024 season.

If there was any sign needed that those tendencies have shifted along with the club’s roster balance, the sight of Kerry Carpenter at the plate against Red Sox southpaw Brennan Bernardino in the eighth inning on Friday night was it.

The left-handed-hitting Carpenter had all of 24 plate appearances against lefties this season, and not simply because he missed 2 1/2 months with a stress fracture in his lower back. Hinch had lifted him consistently for right-handed hitters early in the season whenever a left-hander was pitching.

The Tigers had a strategy of winning at the margins, and with their lefty-righty balance, playing the matchups was a central part of it.

“I think I’ve hit for every left-handed hitter outside of Riley [Greene],” Hinch said on Thursday. “And I hit for Riley last year against [Aroldis] Chapman.”

As Carpenter rounded the bases on his three-run homer on Friday, having deposited the first pitch he saw from Bernardino into Detroit’s bullpen beyond Comerica Park’s left-field fence, he put a punctuation mark on the Tigers’ next phase. Detroit lost a 7-5 decision in 10 innings, its four-run rally having extended the game for naught, but the Tigers had made their point: The days of mixing and matching are just about past.

Part of that, like Carpenter’s at-bat, is out of necessity. So many of the Tigers’ budding young hitters bat left-handed that Hinch couldn’t pinch-hit for them all even if he wanted to. He had already used right-handed hitters Ryan Kreidler and Andy Ibáñez earlier in the eighth inning by the time Carpenter stepped on deck.

With a right-hander warming up in Boston’s bullpen for most of the eighth inning, the Red Sox were ready regardless. Some of these left-handed hitters beyond Greene are going to have to face lefties. Carpenter, despite his power impact, has usually not been one of them.

Carpenter was 1-for-21 off lefties this season entering Friday. By contrast, lefty-hitting third baseman Jace Jung already has nine at-bats off southpaws since the Tigers promoted him from Triple-A Toledo two weeks ago, and has as many starts as Carpenter against lefty starters (two).

But Carpenter’s rare at-bats against lefties shouldn’t be mistaken as a reticence for him to face them. He worked hard on facing southpaws last year in an effort to increase his versatility and his playing time.

In the process, Carpenter worked hard on hitting to the opposite field, a skill that has helped him against pitching in general this year. When his timing is right, he’s ready for fastballs but quick enough to react to offspeed pitches.

It worked out well on Friday. Red Sox catcher Connor Wong had set up off the plate for Bernardino’s target once Carpenter stepped to the dish with runners on first and second. Carpenter went with Bernardino’s 91.9 mph sinker and lofted it out to left.

The 34-degree launch angle was Carpenter’s second-highest this season, according to Statcast.

“It’s a tough matchup,” Hinch said. “He did a good job of hanging in there and taking a good approach.”

When it cleared the fence, it marked Carpenter’s first home run off a lefty since he went deep off another Red Sox southpaw, then-Boston starter Chris Sale, on Aug. 11 of last year at Fenway Park. In that case, Carpenter tagged a slider and pulled it deep over the Boston bullpens in right-center.

Carpenter’s home run brought the Tigers within a run and ended a stretch of 22 consecutive scoreless innings. Once Jake Rogers doubled home Zach McKinstry against Kenley Jansen in the ninth, the comeback was complete. But Ceddanne Rafaela’s two-run homer and Jarren Duran’s solo shot restored Boston’s three-run advantage in the 10th.

Don’t expect this to make Carpenter a lefty-lefty staple. The Tigers still have a lot of outfielders to work in, including right-handed hitter Matt Vierling, and Hinch could still get more balance once rosters expand on Sunday.

Still, Hinch is learning to love the new lefty balance.

“You’re going to get the [platoon] advantage a ton with just the way the league is comprised. I mean, you just have more right-handed pitchers than left-handed pitchers, more right-handed starters than left-handed starters,” Hinch said on Wednesday.

“It’s a fun lineup to write against a right-handed pitcher, and then you’re staring down at their bullpen wondering: When are they going to get a lefty up? And what is the situation going to be?”