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Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter makes Mariners regret George Kirby move with HR
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- Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter makes Mariners regret George Kirby move with HR
The post Tigers' Kerry Carpenter makes Mariners regret George Kirby move with HR appeared first on ClutchPoints .
The Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners clashed on Friday night in the biggest game of the Major League Baseball postseason so far. Fans showed out in Seattle to support Cal Raleigh and the Mariners , but Kerry Carpenter turned the game on its head. With George Kirby out of the game, the star outfielder gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning of Game 5 with one swing.
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The American League Divisional Series between the two contenders has been electric. Detroit ace pitcher Tarik Skubal made history in his second start of the series . Despite his effort, he was on the hook for a loss through five innings. Then, Carpenter dug in against Gabe Speier for the first time.
He mashed a fastball and crushed it 411 feet to center field to change the course of the game.
Carpenter was not one of the Tigers' best players throughout the regular season. However, he stepped up against the Mariners in Detroit's second playoff series, coming through in the clutch. His home run off of Speier adds to his stellar numbers against Seattle's pitching staff.
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Mariners manager Dan Wilson pulled Kirby from the game to avoid a bad matchup against Carpenter. The outfielder has seven hits and five home runs against the starter in his career. He mashed a homer off of Kirby in Game 1 to help the Tigers to a 3-2 win. Despite an analytics-based move on Wilson's part, Carpenter punished it in the biggest game of the playoffs so far.
Detroit almost suffered a historic collapse at the end of the regular season . Despite struggling down the stretch, the Tigers are one win away from the ALCS. The winner of Friday night's game travels to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays . Carpenter and Skubal have the Tigers in good position to do so, taking advantage of an ill-timed pitching change.
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