Carpenter came on in the eighth inning, and when he approached home plate to hit the ball for the second time in the top of the ninth inning, his Tigers were tied with the Guardians, 0-0. The Tigers have yet to run across the plate in the best-of-five American League Division Series, as they lost Game 1 on Saturday, 7-0. Carpenter changed that, and the entire outlook for the series, with one powerful hit. The ball came off Carpenter’s bat at 110.8 mph, the hardest hit of Carpenter’s career.

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The Guardians could not answer Carpenter’s three-run home run in the bottom of the inning, giving the Tigers the win and evening the series with a tie. Now, things turn to Detroit for the next two contests. Cleveland’s pitching staff confused Detroit’s batters for much of the first 17 innings of the series until Carpenter delivered a strong hit in the ninth inning. He was the first MLB player to hit a two-run, two-hit, leadoff homerun in the ninth inning of a postseason game since Kirk Gibson’s unforgettable hit in the 1988 World Series. Furthermore, Carpenter’s home run came off Emmanuel Clase, the Guardians’ closer who many believe is the best closer in MLB. Clase, the AL’s saves leader and an All-Star the past three seasons, allowed just five earned runs and two home runs in 74.1 innings during the regular season . He hadn’t allowed three hits in an inning all season, until Monday.