Can Kerry Carpenter's return help the Tigers get right?

New York Times

5 days ago

DETROIT — Kerry Carpenter wheeled his suitcase through a set of double doors and entered the Detroit Tigers' clubhouse Sunday morning.
You could practically feel the atmosphere in the room lighten.
Here, finally, was good news.
Here, finally, was real help.
At his best, Carpenter is the Tigers' most dangerous left-handed hitter. He is a powerful chess piece, the queen on A.J. Hinch's managerial board. He's a hitter opposing managers target, a player who can enter a game off the bench or get flipped for a pinch hitter in a crucial spot.
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'The look of the lineup, the feel, the strategy, everything is better with Kerry Carpenter in it,' Hinch said.
Carpenter's presence was sorely missed during a brutal stretch in which the Tigers lost 12 of 13 games.
Really, it's been missing since the start of June, when Carpenter was playing through a hamstring injury and clearly wasn't right. He hasn't drawn a walk since May 23, and he hit .194 after June 3.
Carpenter finally went on the injured list July 2 after tweaking the right hamstring again. The All-Star break provided a clear time for a reset. Carpenter worked his way back. Said he began feeling better quickly. He went on a rehab assignment, took a couple of games to find his timing and his mechanics.
Before Saturday's game in Triple A, Hinch texted Carpenter. 'Call me after your game,' he wrote.
Carpenter ended up connecting on a pair of line drives and hit a home run Saturday.
Afterward, he called his manager. Told him he was feeling good. He asked Hinch what he needed to see next.
'We need you in the lineup,' Hinch told him.
Sunday morning, Carpenter was back in Detroit, back at his locker and back in the middle of the Tigers' order.
'That's the worst, is not being able to do anything to help,' Carpenter said of the Tigers' losing streak. 'We got a bunch of good hitters on this team. Whatever we can do to get out of this, I'm sure it's gonna come pretty quickly. I'm just excited to be in the middle of it and be back with these guys.'
Carpenter's arrival proved to be a harbinger of good things Sunday. In the series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Tigers won 10-4 and snapped a six-game losing streak. Jack Flaherty was in sync, commanding his stuff with precision and mixing his arsenal to devastating results.
He threw six scoreless innings and even ended the day by pumping a 96.1 mph fastball — tied for his fastest pitch this season — past Ernie Clement.
GL3YB3R TORR3S 💣 pic.twitter.com/QNzwFMBxsP
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 27, 2025
Flaherty was able to pitch with the lead because Gleyber Torres hit a three-run home run in the third inning. The Tigers had started the inning getting hits from Dillon Dingler and Parker Meadows. Javier Báez and Colt Keith followed with two flyouts, both too shallow to score Dingler from third.
So there with two outs, Torres was in the midst of an 0-for-16 slump. The hitter who has been a consistent contributor all season then delivered the big swing his team has been waiting for. With Carpenter lurking behind him in the order, Torres launched a challenge fastball from Max Scherzer high over the opposite-field wall.
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Again, you could practically feel the exhale reverberating from the dugout up through the Comerica Park stands.
Scherzer still shut down the Tigers, retiring his final 13 batters. But the lineup came alive in the eighth inning, good at-bats strung together like this team has not done for the bulk of July. The Tigers scored seven runs, six coming with two outs.
'It feels like we hadn't seen that in a while, right?' Hinch said. 'We really had a hard time showing our identity and what we're about when we're not collecting hits.'
A small detail to consider: Carpenter's presence forced the Blue Jays to bring in left-hander Justin Bruihl with two outs in the eighth. Hinch inserted right-hander Matt Vierling, who singled, in Carpenter's place. After a base hit from Riley Greene, the Tigers had a run of favorable matchups against the lefty and kept upping the number on the scoreboard.
Carpenter went 0-for-3 Sunday, but his return will play a large role in the Tigers' quest to get back to their winning identity.
'Kerry's presence matters,' Hinch said. 'It changes how they navigate our lineup. He's a really big threat. It plays into how Gleyber is getting pitched because Kerry's a threat. When you can impact a game and not necessarily be the feature of a game, that's a middle-of-the-order bat. … Our lineup just looks different and functions differently with him in it.'