Kerry Carpenter's clutch HR in dramatic Tigers win sucked the life out of Mariners

On Wednesday night in Detroit, Mariners starter Bryan Woo had blanked the Tigers through seven innings. He'd given up four hits, but all were singles that came in separate innings. The Tigers weren't swinging and missing much, but they could hardly get anything past the infield when they did get bat on ball.

The Tigers bullpen, meanwhile, also wasn't making it easy for the Mariners. Bryan Sammons did the bulk of the work behind opener Beau Brieske; Sammons gave up five hits in 5 2/3 innings but only allowed one run on a Jorge Polanco single. Julio Rodríguez drove one in during the eighth and loaded the bases, but Shelby Miller managed to get out of the jam with a strikeout and fly out.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers were running out of time. There were two outs on a Zach McKinstry strikeout and Jake Rogers fly out, but then Matt Vierling came up to give the Tigers their first extra-base hit of the night on a ground rule double that just barely stayed fair.

Then Kerry Carpenter, who hit two home runs in his return from the IL the night before during Detroit's 15-1 rout of the Mariners, got into a 2-2 count against Yimi García. He saw a 96 MPH fastball straight down the heart of the plate and jumped on it. The ball was crushed to right field and cleared the wall to even the score.

Tigers solidify series win over Mariners thanks to clutch Kerry Carpenter home run

Akil Baddoo, on his fourth trip up to the majors this season after Wenceel Pérez went onto the IL with an oblique strain last week, got to play the hero. Neither Detroit nor Seattle were able to get anything going in the ninth, so the game headed into extras.

Parker Meadows was the ghost runner on second, and after a Justyn-Henry Malloy walk and McKinstry strikeout, Baddoo came up looking for his first extra-base hit since being recalled, and he didn't disappoint. A 1-2 count cutter ended up right on the warning track, allowing Meadows to score easily.

After the game, Mariners manager Scott Servais said simply, "This one hurts."

In two games since Carpenter returned, he's collected four hits (three of them have been homers) and driven in five runs. It's hard not to wonder what this team would've looked like over the past few months if they'd had him in the lineup, but now we're just glad he's back and helping make Tigers baseball fun even in what's left of another postseason-less year.