Tigers star takes direct postgame shot at Guardians after bitter Wild Card ending

There are plenty of players who have tormented the Cleveland Guardians in the postseason. At different points, Giancarlo Stanton, Ben Zobrist and Édgar Rentería have become public enemy No. 1 in Cleveland due to their October performances against Cleveland. 

Kerry Carpenter is quickly making his way onto that list.

After hitting .308 against the Guardians last year in the ALDS with one majestic home run off Emmanuel Clase, Carpenter helped lead Detroit to a Wild Card Series win over Cleveland by reaching base eight times and serving as a grim reaper in the middle of the lineup. 

Kerry Carpenter's twists the knife in Guardians with post-clinch comments

And, as he mentioned after Detroit’s series-clinching win on Thursday, his Tigers team ended Cleveland’s season at home after hearing all about how they blew their lead in the division against the Guardians. 

“It’s really sweet. We hear a lot about 15 1/2 games but we’re going to Seattle and they’re not so it’s pretty special,” Carpenter said after the game. 

After Carpenter mentioned, the Tigers blew a 15 1/2 lead in the American League Central against the Guardians, which led to Detroit heading to Progressive Field for the Wild Card Series as opposed to hosting the Guardians at Comerica Park. But it took exactly one game for Detroit to ruin those good vibes with a win in Game 1 of the series on Tuesday. 

And while the Guardians were able to come back and win Game 2, the Tigers took an early lead on a Carpenter double in Game 3 and rode a strong bullpen performance to a 6-3 win. 

While Carpenter may have some obvious holes in his game (namely his chase rate and inability to play the field), he’s a modern-day Guardians killer who has become one of the game’s best sluggers. 

While Carpenter he’s mashed 70 home runs across his four major league seasons, and is a career .256 hitter against the Guardians in the regular season, he’s quickly becoming one of the sport's best postseason performers. He’s hit .310 across 10 career postseason games and has .348 in eight postseason games against the Guardians. 

Although intradivision teams don’t play each other as much thanks to MLB’s restricted scheduling, the Guardians and Tigers are quickly becoming one of the sport’s best rivalries how they’ve played in the postseason over the past two seasons. 

The Guardians got the last laugh on Carpenter and the Tigers last year thanks to Lane Thomas’ huge home run against Tarik Skubal. This year, Carpenter and the Tigers got to douse the Guardians’ visiting clubhouse in champagne thanks in large part due to Carpenter’s heroics in the batters box. 

We’ll have to wait and see how much of that animosity carries over to things next season when the two teams face off for the first time in June.