Tigers 13, White Sox 1: Kerry Bonds Times Three!

Do you like home runs? Well, Kerry Carpenter sure does, and he hit three of them in a rout.

The Detroit Tigers ’ first game of the four-game series against the not-quite-as-bad-as-last-year-but-still-not-great White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday night saw the return of a familiar face, a boatload of home runs, and a departure from the tight games against the Royals this past weekend with an enjoyable and eventful 13-1 Tigers victory.

Jack Flaherty made his twelfth start for the Tigers. He’s been okay this year, and he’s definitely been striking a ton of guys out (10.9 K/9 innings), but the walks have been a problem (2.9/9IP). Typically he’ll give you six innings, and it won’t be dominating, shutdown stuff, but he’ll usually keep the Tigers in the game. In particular, some blow-ups late in starts have been a problem.

Taking the ball for the White Sox was Jonathan “Boom Boom” Cannon — and I don’t know if he goes by that nickname, but (a.) he should, and (b.) yes, I was raised on rock and roll from the early 1960s. That aside, the tall right-hander from Georgia is in his second full season in the major leagues, and has been okay-ish. He typically won’t strike out too many, and he’s more of a fly-ball pitcher but he doesn’t give up an outrageous number of home runs or anything — well, I mean, normally. Tonight was a different story.

Kerry Carpenter got the Tigers on the board in the first: after a Gleyber Torres blooper to put a runner on with one out, Carpenter jumped all over a changeup down the middle for a quick 2-0 lead for his first home run of the night.

One out later Dillon Dingler thought that looked like a lot of fun, so he joined the home run party and made it a 3-0 lead.

Parker “Big Slim” Meadows — a clever nickname used by radio colour guy Bobby Scales, and I can dig it — made his return to the Tigers and got the third out in the bottom of the first with a nice sliding catch with a runner on third base.

Welcome back, Big Slim. (Yes, I hope it catches on.)

Wenceel Pérez didn’t want to be left out of the aforementioned shin-dig, so he popped his own home run the opposite way in the second for a 5-0 Tigers lead.

After three innings in which Cannon threw 85 pitches, Bryse Wilson relieved him and was going to have to eat a bunch of innings. With two outs in the fourth Meadows smashed a double to the wall, and Torres brought him gliding home with a single to right for a 6-0 lead. Carpenter, though, got a hold of cutter down in the zone for his second home run of the game and it was 8-0.

Meanwhile, Flaherty was rolling: after that leadoff double in the first, he retired ten straight batters before Miguel Vargas hit a single to left with one out in the fourth. But a soft lineout and a fly ball got him out of the inning, which was lovely. He also got the ol’ 2-5 foulout to start the fifth: Dingler chased a foul popup a long way (for him), and it popped out of his glove… and right over to Zack McKinstry who was in the perfect spot to receive the ball.

You practice and practice that play, thinking you’ll never get a chance to do it for real, and then one day…

Meadows led off the sixth with a gorgeous triple to right field and came home on a groundout for a 9-0 game. Carpenter then clubbed his third home run of the game for a 10-0 lead.

It was the first three-dinger game by the Tigers since Victor Martinez on June 16, 2016 against the Royals. Take a bow, Kerry!

Flaherty got through six innings, giving up one run on four hits, with one walk and four strikeouts. That’s a good line, but as the game wore on Flaherty’s fastball lost some zip; hopefully that’s not a harbinger of things to come. Recent callup Dylan Smith then made his major-league debut and plunked the first batter with a sweeper that just kept on sweeping, but he recovered and got a foulout to first and a double-play grounder to shortstop.

Carpenter, in a bid for his fourth home run of the night, hit a fly ball to centre with none out… but it was easily caught by Luis Robert Jr. So much for a four-homer game, and cue up the sad trombone . During the inning the Tigers scored some more runs by, um, some way, I think? Hard to keep track of all of ‘em, really. Plus, I was eating some rice pudding and was thoroughly enjoying it and I got distracted. When I looked up from the pudding it was 13-1 and I was a little sad that the pudding was done.

Vinny Capra moved from second base to the mound for the top of the ninth and pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Sign him up, Scott!

Sadly, Smith wasn’t going to carry on into the ninth for a shot at an el-cheapo three-inning save in a blowout; John Brebbia was summoned to close the thing out, as he hasn’t had a lot of work lately. It went well: flyout, swinging strikeout, groundout. Victory!

The next game of the series is at 7:40 pm EDT (6:40 pm CDT) on Tuesday night.

Box Score: Tigers 13, White Sox 1

It was fifteen years ago today…

Fifteen years ago today was Armando Galarraga’s (in)famous “28-Out Perfect Game.” Now, we all know about the whole blown-call fiasco — and the grace shown by both sides the next day during the lineup card exchange, which will bring a tear to your eye if you’re not some sort of monster — but let’s back up a couple of batters. First pitch of the ninth, fly ball a heck of a long way out there, and Austin Jackson pulls off one of the most sensational catches you will ever see.

Galarraga hung a really fat fastball that did nothing, and the smile on his face after Jackson ran a country mile was probably also a sigh of relief. But, I mean, holy mackerel, that is one catch for the ages. I’ve stood out there by the wall on the field at Comerica Park and it is astoundingly big out there.

The above clip contains the calls from both the TV and radio crews for both teams. I’d only ever heard the “Oh, Jackson!” of Rod Allen on Fox Sports Detroit before, but I must say the most excited person on that whole thing is the Cleveland radio play-by-play guy, which is nice.

Finally… of course it was Don Kelly in left field. One last Donnie Deed™, perhaps? “Don Kelly supports teammate making a great catch, gets your mail for you when you’re on vacation.”