Corbin Carroll continued to enhance his Rookie of the Year campaign in his first game at Detroit.
The Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder smashed two homers, including his first career grand slam, in an 11-6 victory over the Tigers on Friday.
Carroll, who also doubled, will try to display his power stroke once again in the second game of the series on Saturday afternoon.
Carroll has 10 hits, including four homers, in Arizona’s past four games. He has scored eight runs and driven in eight during that span. Overall, he has 13 homers, 32 RBIs and 45 runs this season.
“I won’t say I woke up this morning and predicted this,” Carroll said during a postgame TV interview. “It’s just a testament to all our hitting coaches and just continuing to grind away every day.”
Detroit will look to snap a seven-game losing streak on Saturday.
The Tigers’ scheduled starter, Matthew Boyd (3-4, 5.57 ERA), hasn’t been going deep into games, but he is coming off his best outing of the season. He held the Chicago White Sox to one run and three hits in five innings on Sunday. Boyd didn’t issue a walk while striking out a season-high nine batters.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch took out the veteran left-hander after 82 pitches.
“I wouldn’t say I knew it was coming, but I trust A.J.,” Boyd said. “A.J. always has a move. There’s always a reason behind his methods, and our bullpen has been so solid. It makes complete sense.
“As a starter and a competitor, you always want to stay in the game. You always want to fight to stay in, but I don’t question A.J. He puts our team in the best position to win day in and day out.”
Hinch’s motivation was Boyd’s difficulty when going through a batting order for the third time.
“I was going to make sure Matthew was going to finish the game in a good place,” Hinch said.
Rookie Ryne Nelson (2-3, 5.40 ERA) will start for the Diamondbacks on Saturday. The right-hander gave up three runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings against the Atlanta Braves on June 3. He also walked four without recording a strikeout.
Nelson has walked 22 batters and struck out only 37 in 61 2/3 innings. The 25-year-old Nevada native, who relies mainly on his fastball and slider, has notched more than four strikeouts only once in 12 starts.
“I just think the secondary stuff hasn’t been as consistent as Nelly probably wants it,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said.
Detroit outfielder/designated hitter Kerry Carpenter was activated off the injured list on Friday, and he gave the Tigers an offensive boost with two hits and a run. He had been sidelined since late April due to a sprained right shoulder.
“Carp is a big part of what we’re trying to do, especially bringing balance to the lineup and some power,” Hinch said. “We need as much offensive boost as we can get based on the last couple of series. But it doesn’t need to all go on his shoulders. We need more than just Carp to get going.”
Jake Rogers hit two solo homers and Javier Baez also went deep for the Tigers, who still couldn’t match Arizona’s firepower.
–Field Level Media
