CHICAGO -- Kerry Carpenter could hear the crowd chanting his name as he stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth Monday night.
Considering his Tigers were playing the White Sox at Rate Field, it was a bit surprising for the Detroit slugger to witness this kind of reaction at a division rival’s home ballpark.
“That was wild,” Carpenter said. “I wasn't expecting that.”
Regardless of which teams’ park he was playing in, though, Carpenter probably deserved the chants after the night he put together. The 27-year-old hammered a trio of home runs in Detroit's 13-1 win, the first giving the Tigers an early two-run lead, the second extending their advantage to eight and the third pushing his team into double digits for the sixth time this season.
His first-inning blast came off a changeup in the middle of the plate from Chicago starter Jonathan Cannon, ending up in the visitor bullpen. Then, Carpenter went deep in the fourth inning with another two-run homer against Cannon’s replacement, Bryse Wilson,
Carpenter capped off the offensive outburst in the sixth with a shot just out of Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr.’s reach, giving him the first three-homer game of his career. Carpenter is the first Tiger to go deep three times in a game since Victor Martinez on June 16, 2016.
“Obviously, those are special nights, and Carp can do it,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I don't know how often anybody ever sees [a three-homer game], but when he gets good pitches to hit, he's as dangerous as anybody. It was nice to see him connect.”
Carpenter couldn’t remember hitting three home runs in a game before. Even in Little League, he said he only hit one, total. Still, after accomplishing the feat for likely the first time in his life, he wanted more. Chicago still had Wilson on the mound in the eighth, and Carpenter wanted to make it his first *four-*homer game, too.
He took a changeup for a ball on the first pitch but didn’t lay off the same pitch in a similar location on the next offering. He flew out to center, ultimately finishing the night with three of his 13 homers on the year.
“I was confident, obviously, and I was trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Carpenter said. “He ended up making a good pitch. I kind of wish I would've maybe swung and missed and gotten a better one. Yeah, he made a good pitch there, but I was trying [for a fourth]. I was trying.”
Carpenter hadn’t exactly been this hot at the plate recently. His OPS fell below .800 for his previous three games, which just hasn’t happened much for him this season.
But facing the White Sox was perhaps a good way to help him break back out. He’s put up great numbers against this team in his four-year career, particularly over the last two seasons. In 23 career games against Chicago following his outburst Monday, he now owns a .969 OPS with eight home runs. All eight have come between 2024-25, and in just those two years, his OPS against the Sox sits at 1.311.
Carpenter’s performance highlighted an overall hot game from Detroit. Offensively, both Dillon Dingler and Wenceel Pérez joined Carpenter with one home run apiece. The Tigers ended up with 16 hits and four walks to go along with their 13 runs, with all but one starter (Zach McKinstry) recording a hit, though every one reached base at least once.
Together with Jack Flaherty’s six innings of one-run ball and some nice defensive plays -- like a returning Parker Meadows diving to preserve a run, Riley Greene sliding into the left-field corner and Dingler and McKinstry’s unreal catch in foul territory -- this was among the Tigers’ most dominant wins as they’ve raced out to an MLB-best 40-21 record.
And though it seemed basically every player on the team contributed, Carpenter is the one who really put his stamp on the victory.
“It's just like the ups and downs of the season, where you go have a night like tonight,” he said. “I haven't seen the ball particularly well the last week or so, so it's just like, the only constant is Jesus Christ, and that's what my hope is in. And then he gives me a night like tonight. It's just such a blessing.”