DETROIT — Kerry Carpenter launched a two-out, walk-off home run to right field, sending the Tigers to a dramatic 4-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in the first of two games Tuesday at a near empty and frigid Comerica Park.
Carpenter blasted a 3-2 pitch from reliever James Karinchak. It was the Tigers' four straight win and their third straight walk-off win.
The game was tied at 3 and the Guardians had runners at the corners with one out. Cleveland manager Terry Francona sent left-handed hitting Josh Naylor up as a pinch-hitter against Tigers rookie right-hander Mason Englert.
Pitching coach Chris Fetter came to the mound to set up manager AJ Hinch's strategy. The defense was going to play for a double play. Naylor is a slugger. He doesn't run well and over his career he's hit the ball on the ground on 50% of the balls he's put in play.
Englert was tasked with pitching him soft and away, get him to roll over. And that's exactly he did. Curveball, changeup, slider and then, on 1-2, a changeup down and out of the strike zone. Naylor reached out and rolled it to second base — 4-6-3 double play.
Englert worked three clutch, scoreless innings in relief of starter Matthew Boyd, keeping the game tied through the eighth inning.
Before the game, Hinch talked about the Guardians' approach to hitting.
"There's a difference between being patient and being passive," he said. "They are not passive. There isn't a free strike right down the middle to these guys. These guys swing at strikes and they swing at the right pitches that they can put in play aggressively."
Boyd felt the force that approach in the fourth inning.
He didn't allow a hit through the first three innings. But the Guardians scored three runs in a span of eight pitches in the fourth.
With one out, Jose Ramirez singled to left and took second when left fielder Akil Baddoo couldn't play the ball cleanly. Jose Bell followed hitting a 2-2 fastball down the right field line for an RBI double.
On the next pitch, Oscar Gonzalez tattooed a slider that was up and in and off the plate, sending it 424 feet into the seats in left.
The first five hitters, including the first ground out, put balls in play with an average exit velocity of 96.6 mph.
That was the only damage Boyd allowed. He went five innings and struck out four.
The Tigers rallied and tied the game in the bottom of the fifth.
Javier Báez, whose sacrifice fly put the Tigers on the board in the first inning, lined an RBI single in the fifth. Carpenter followed with an RBI double.
Riley Greene singled in both the first and fifth, setting up runs. Eric Haase, who singled to start the rally in the fifth, had four singles on the day.
The Tigers, though, were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.
