‘Instincts took over’: Carpenter’s HR evens ALDS
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
CLEVELAND — He didn’t start in the game — but he helped end it.
Detroit Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter clubbed a go-ahead three-run home run off Cleveland Guardians All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth inning of Game 2 of their American League Division Series on Monday to break a scoreless tie.
The blast — the hardest ball he has hit in his career — came off a 2-2 slider and evened the best-of-five series at one game apiece. Game 3 is Wednesday in Detroit.
“I wasn’t sitting on it, but I was just on time for his hardest pitch … and I was like zeroing in for it to start in a certain zone, and my instincts took over and he missed a spot,” Carpenter said after the Tigers’ 3-0 win. “So I took advantage of it.”
The 423-foot shot came after back-to-back two-out hits off Clase by catcher Jake Rogers and shortstop Trey Sweeney. The improbable home run was the first served up by Clase to a left-handed batter all season and was just the ninth in postseason history hit in the ninth inning or later of a scoreless game, according to ESPN Research.
“It’s exactly who you want at the plate right there,” Detroit teammate Spencer Torkelson said. “When you have a guy that can stay that cool in those moments it gives you the best chance to succeed.”
Torkelson’s comments were echoed by others in the clubhouse. That’s because Detroit’s second-half surge into the postseason coincided with Carpenter’s return to the lineup after he missed 2½ months with a lumbar spine stress fracture.
The Tigers ranked 24th in scoring while he was injured, but that jumped to 11th from the day he rejoined the team in August to the end of the regular season. Carpenter’s two home runs against Seattle in his first game back Aug. 13 — and another one the next day — foreshadowed his impact.
“Everybody knows it,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “It’s no secret that he’s a big threat and he’s prepared, and he’s as balanced a human as you’re going to get, which allows him to stay grounded in whatever we ask him to do. We missed him a ton during the year.”
Carpenter entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning, popping up to the catcher after taking “zero” swings in the batting cage while waiting his turn. He knew he would get at least one more chance considering the Guardians were into their bullpen by the fifth inning and the Tigers like to use their bench for the best matchups.
“It’s pretty fun to be a part of this, and to do it off of [Clase] is special, because he’s literally the best closer in the game for a reason,” Carpenter said.
Said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt: “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.”
Nervous tension mounted throughout the afternoon as neither team could get a runner home. While Guardians starter Matthew Boyd came out of the game in the fifth, that wasn’t the case for Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. The likely AL Cy Young winner was as good as ever, throwing seven shutout innings while saving his best pitches for inning-ending double-play balls in the fifth and sixth innings.
“That’s when I’m at my best, when I keep the game simple and just go right at guys,” Skubal said. “Strike one, strike two and get guys uncomfortable.”
Skubal came off the mound after both those moments showing emotion walking back to the dugout.
He has earned that right, as he became the fifth pitcher to begin his postseason career with multiple scoreless outings of six innings or more. He blanked the Houston Astros over six innings in the wild-card round, and added seven more shutout innings Monday. The Guardians had just three hits off him, struck out eight times and didn’t earn a free pass. Skubal was dominant.
“There’s a reason he’s the best pitcher on the planet,” reliever Beau Brieske said with a smile.
Skubal would be in line to start Game 5, if necessary.
Detroit scratched and clawed its way into the postseason before taking down Houston in the AL Wild Card Series. The Tigers finally took a punch, losing 7-0 in Game 1 on Saturday.
“You have to stay in the fight,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “That’s it.”
The Tigers have been in that fight for nearly two months — since right about the time Carpenter returned to the lineup. His home run Monday changed the tone of the series in an instant.
“I knew it was gone,” he said. “And it was just an amazing feeling being able to come through for this team.”
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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