CLEVELAND — Following one of the most remarkable campaigns we’ve ever seen from a relief pitcher, it was hard not to get excited about the first time Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase would enter a postseason game in a high-leverage situation against the opponent’s best bat.
In Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday, we got our first look at such a showdown, as Clase entered in the late stages of a classic postseason pitchers' duel with the score stuck at 0-0. Tigers ace Tarik Skubal had managed to one-up his outstanding playoff debut last week in Houston, with seven nearly flawless frames against a Guardians lineup that hardly stood a chance.
But veteran left-hander Matthew Boyd had matched Skubal for four-plus innings before turning the game over to baseball’s best bullpen, which kept the zeroes coming. Detroit and Cleveland traded defensive gems and near-rallys for eight innings until Clase found himself on the mound with the game on the line.
Enter Kerry Carpenter.
The Tigers’ outfielder has a very particular set of skills. He is not an especially gifted defender. He is not notably fast. A lefty bat, he struggles against left-handed pitching, with a .588 career OPS against southpaws. But when Carpenter steps in the box against a right-handed pitcher, he is one of the best hitters on the planet.
That is no exaggeration. Among batters with at least 250 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers this year, only Aaron Judge (1.132 OPS), Shohei Ohtani (1.128 OPS), Bobby Witt Jr. (1.012 OPS) and Juan Soto (.999 OPS) had more success than Carpenter (.994 OPS).
Perhaps later this month we will get to see Clase face one of those four more familiar superstars; all four remain in play as potential future Guardians opponents. But on Monday, it was Carpenter who represented Clase’s toughest customer.
Like Clase, Carpenter had begun Game 2 waiting to hear his name called. His struggles against left-handers, combined with Detroit’s superior options to plug into the lineup, have turned Carpenter into a platoon power-up of sorts, one who slots into the heart of the order against right-handed starters and looms large in the dugout, waiting to be deployed, when a left-hander starts the game for the opponent.
"Obviously, he's a center point of our offense," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said after his team's 3-0 victory. "When we face right-handed pitching, he's usually batting second, third or fourth. When he's not, he's got his helmet on and his bat in his hand pretty much for every inning until we decide to unleash him."
In the top of the eighth, that time had come. Hinch pressed his most valuable bench button, tabbing Carpenter to pinch-hit for Justyn-Henry Malloy to lead things off against right-handed reliever Hunter Gaddis. Carpenter worked the count full before popping out on a slider just a touch inside. A couple of Tigers baserunners followed, prompting Clase's entry into the game with two outs. Then the rally was thwarted by an outstanding diving catch in left field by Steven Kwan to rob Wenceel Perez of a potential go-ahead hit.
After a 1-2-3 eighth from Will Vest, Clase reemerged from the Guardians’ dugout looking to keep the game scoreless for yet another frame. For Carpenter to get another opportunity against Clase in the ninth, multiple batters at the bottom of Detroit’s order needed to reach base against the best closer on the planet. A Spencer Torkelson strikeout followed by a Parker Meadows popout was not an especially encouraging start.
But then catcher Jake Rogers stroked a 100 mph cutter into left field for a single, and rookie Trey Sweeney, facing Clase for the first time in his life, calmly followed with a single of his own. Carpenter would get his chance.
“How about the three two-out hits?” Hinch said afterward. “Obviously, Kerry, we want him up to bat as often as we can in those moments. He can change the scoreboard. He can change the game. He can, he does it time after time.
“But you gotta have guys do something in front of him in order to give him that opportunity, and we had three two-out hits against the best closer in baseball.”
For Carpenter to come through for the Tigers, he needed to defy the limits seemingly established by his formidable opponent: Not once this year had Clase allowed more than two hits in an outing. And for as good as Carpenter has been against right-handed pitching, it pales in comparison to the degree that Clase has neutralized left-handed bats: Among pitchers to face at least 100 left-handed hitters in a season, Clase's .282 OPS allowed was the lowest in MLB history.
On this night, though, Clase’s command was noticeably faltering with each passing pitch. Two cutters that missed outside put Carpenter in a favorable 2-0 count. A third cutter was better located on the outer half, and Carpenter fouled it off. Then catcher Bo Naylor set up outside for a 2-1 slider, and Clase misfired badly, but Carpenter flailed at the high-and-tight, 92 mph spinner for strike two. The count was back in Clase’s favor, but the closer was not hitting his spots. Again, Naylor set up outside, and again, Clase’s slider had other plans, this time landing in the middle of the strike zone. Carpenter fouled it weakly off his foot.
As he readied for another 2-2 pitch, Naylor was even more demonstrative, motioning his glove toward the ground as if pleading for his pitcher to keep his next offering — a third consecutive slider against a left-handed batter, an ultra-rare sequence that Clase had executed only one other time this season — out of harm's way.
Instead, a carbon copy of the previous pitch — a slider middle-in, right where any left-handed hitter would want it — careened toward home plate. This time, Carpenter did not miss it.
“I wasn't sitting on it,” he explained postgame, “but I was just on time for his hardest pitch … and my instincts took over, and he missed a spot, so I took advantage of it.”
There wasn’t an ounce of doubt. The ball left the bat at 110.8 mph, the highest exit velocity of Carpenter’s career and the hardest hit ball allowed in Clase's. Right fielder Will Brennan offered a helpless jog toward the wall before watching the ball sail well over his head and into the seats. A Progressive Field packed with Guardians fans was left stunned, unable to fathom Clase faltering. The jubilant Tigers supporters scattered throughout the stands celebrated, equally shocked.
Matt Vierling followed Carpenter’s blast with an infield single, and Clase’s outing was over after 28 pitches. For the first time all year, manager Stephen Vogt strode to the mound and asked Clase for the ball. As the closer walked slowly back to his dugout, the Cleveland crowd consoled him with a warm ovation — an unusual sight following such a poor performance, yet an appropriate response considering all Clase had accomplished to this point.
“Emmanuel has been lock-down all year,” Vogt said postgame. “He's been nearly perfect … and he's human, too. These things are going to happen, and it's unfortunate the timing of when it did, but at the same time, he's going to have the ball in the ninth again. This is the best closer in the game for a reason, and they just happened to get him tonight.”
For practically the entire season, opposing hitters failed to break through against Clase. For the first 17 innings of this series, the Tigers couldn’t muster much of anything against Cleveland’s pitching. With one swing, Carpenter tagged Clase with 60% of the earned runs (3) that he allowed in the regular season (5) — and provided the first runs of this ALDS for a Tigers team that now heads back to its home park with the series tied 1-1.
It was the latest and greatest moment for a player who has meant so much to Detroit's lineup during the team's late-season surge. It does not seem like a coincidence that Detroit's push for the postseason began in earnest once Carpenter returned from the injured list in mid-August. After missing more than two months due to a back injury, Carpenter was reinstated ahead of a three-game series against a Mariners team that had just swept the Mets. The Tigers, meanwhile, had just dropped a series in San Francisco, sinking their playoff odds to a meager 0.3%.
Upon his return, Carpenter instantly made an impact. He crushed two home runs off George Kirby in a 15-1 rout in the series opener against Seattle and smashed a game-tying blast in the eighth inning the following day. The Tigers swept the Mariners, marking the start of what has turned out to be a truly special stretch — one that remains in progress nearly two months later, thanks in large part to Carpenter’s continued contributions.
“We missed him a ton during the year,” Hinch said. “And this is an example — it's easy to say today is why. But [there are] so many more things that he brings to the table that create an incredible influence on our team.”
With veteran right-hander Alex Cobb slated to start for Cleveland in Game 3, it's a safe bet that when this series resumes Wednesday in Detroit, Carpenter will be in the starting lineup. While his next big moment is yet to be determined, one thing is certain: A Comerica Park crowd that hasn't seen postseason baseball in a decade will greet him with a hero's welcome.
Two wins away from the ALCS, Carpenter can continue to make his mark on this memorable Tigers run.