DETROIT -- The haze hanging over Comerica Park, the product of wildfires in western Canada, put a slight shroud over the downtown skyline Monday night. It did little to dampen the view of Kerry Carpenter’s go-ahead two-run homer as it soared seemingly halfway to Windsor, Ontario.
“I thought it was going to get to the second deck above the signs,” manager A.J. Hinch said after the 6-3 win over the Twins.
“I don't know; I don't have that kind of pop,” Carpenter said. “I've got decent. I think Riley [Greene] has second deck in there, but not me.”
The 437-foot drive -- the longest of Carpenter’s career -- missed Comerica Park’s distant right-field porch, but it was exactly what the Tigers needed to put their hitting struggles away.
“He’s always one swing away from dominating the day,” Hinch said.
This is the impact Carpenter has in the Tigers' lineup, especially against Minnesota. With the Trade Deadline-depleted Twins bullpen unable to play matchups against Carpenter and Detroit’s other left-handed hitters -- Kody Funderburk is Minnesota’s lone lefty reliever, and he pitched two innings Sunday in Cleveland -- the Tigers have a chance to do damage this week. But on Monday, they had to get through the Twins’ rookie starter first.
For 4 1/3 innings, the Tigers seemed to be feeling the hangover of Sunday night’s 2-0 loss in Philadelphia. Travis Adams, making his first Major League start after four appearances out of the bullpen, racked up five consecutive strikeouts through the heart of Detroit’s lineup and faced the minimum through 16 batters. The Tigers' lone hit in the stretch was a Zach McKinstry dribbler that somehow stayed fair as it rolled less than halfway down the first-base line for a third-inning infield single before being nullified by Dillon Dingler’s ensuing lineout double play.
Spencer Torkelson’s one-out single in the fifth inning and Wenceel Pérez’s second home run in four days, a game-tying drive to right off an Adams slider, broke a 14-inning scoreless streak. But Matt Wallner’s solo homer, the third home run of the night off Casey Mize, put the Twins back on top in the sixth.
Once Adams left, the Tigers pounced. After Javier Báez and Colt Keith singled off Noah Davis to begin the sixth, Carpenter loomed on deck. Báez scored on Gleyber Torres’ ground ball, and the chants began.
“Ker-ry! Ker-ry!”
Carpenter noticed.
“It’s a special thing to be able to experience,” he said. “But I just don’t put too much stock into it, because I’ve still gotta go do a job out there. It’s tough, but it was a special moment nonetheless.”
A 2-0 count only heightened the anticipation. Davis hung a sinker. Carpenter didn’t have to reach far to connect, and he crushed it.
“He knew he got it,” Hinch said. “We knew he got it. And it changes the scoreboard.”
Carpenter is one of the nicest players you’ll find in the Tigers’ clubhouse. He will gladly talk about his teammates before himself. But his home run pose was iconic, from the legs to the follow-through to the bat flip. Or is it a bat drop?
“Maybe a little bit of both,” he said. “I don’t know. I just kind of got the bat out of my hands as quick as possible and started walking. But yeah, it was fun. It was really fun.”
His 19th home run of the season was his third off Twins pitching. Only the White Sox have seen more Carpenter home runs this year, and half of those were in one game.
Carpenter’s 2-for-4 night improved him to .398 (37-for-93) in his career against the Twins, with six home runs and 16 RBIs. No other division opponent has allowed him to hit .300.
With two more right-handed starters looming and the lefty-limited bullpen, Carpenter has a chance to further those numbers. His next homer will tie his single-season high from 2023, earning him his second 20-homer season in three years.
Mize (10-4) survived three solo homers to salvage a quality start and stay in line for his first win since July 5. Dingler’s 10th homer of the year off former Tigers reliever Erasmo Ramírez added an insurance run ahead of Kyle Finnegan’s second save as a Tiger.
The game took just 1 hour, 58 minutes. Not since Aug. 6, 1982, against the Blue Jays had the Tigers homered three times in a game that lasted less than two hours. Not since July 5, 1948, in Cleveland had the Tigers completed a game in less than two hours with six or more home runs between the two teams.