Tigers knock around Bryan Woo, hand Mariners loss to open road trip

DETROIT – Kerry Carpenter might want to petition for a move to the American League West and a few more chances to face the Mariners. Regular season or playoffs, the right fielder for the Tigers has provided his share of headaches for the Mariners the last few years.

Carpenter continued that trend with a two-run homer off M’s starter Bryan Woo and helped hand Seattle a 7-3 loss on Friday night in the opener of a 10-game road trip before 32,591 at Comerica Park.

The Tigers knocked around Woo and the rest of the M’s pitchers for 12 hits with the biggest swings coming from Carpenter, Gleyber Torres’ two-run double that greeted Eduard Bazardo in the seventh inning and Spencer Torkelson’s two-run homer off Alex Hoppe in the eighth.

“I feel like I threw the ball better than what the scoreboard showed,” Woo said. “Kind of got singled to death, but got to give them credit. They hit a lot of good pitches and definitely made me work for it. Just couldn’t get out of a couple of situations.”

The M’s did get good news after the game with X-rays coming back negative on the hand of shortstop J.P. Crawford and softening the blow of a second straight loss.

Crawford was lifted in the third inning after getting hit on the right hand by a 95 mph fastball from Detroit starter Framber Valdez. Crawford also appeared to have a sore ankle after awkwardly sliding into home plate in the first inning to score the M’s first run on Rob Refsynder’s single.

He’ll be re-evaluated before Saturday’s game.

“There’s nothing broken so we’ll just kind of see how he is in the morning,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said.

Colt Emerson provided the biggest offensive highlight for the M’s with an opposite field solo homer in the seventh inning, his fourth long ball and ninth extra-base hit in 14 total hits since making his debut.

Emerson laid off a curveball at the top of the strike zone from Drew Anderson to start the at-bat. When he came back with a fastball in nearly the same spot, Emerson was ready.

“I didn’t miss my pitch,” the rookie said.

But the rest of the night was mostly filled with missed opportunities as the M’s were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Josh Naylor and Refsynder were left standing at first and second after leading off the fourth with hits.

Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena were left at second and third when Naylor grounded out to end the fifth. Rodríguez followed Emerson’s homer with a double in the seventh but Arozarena’s deep fly ball to right died on the warning track to end the inning.

The home run mostly carried the M’s run production during their recent eight-game win streak. But expecting that significant of a power surge to continue doesn’t seem realistic.

“I thought guys put up good at-bats … the results we didn’t get tonight,” Wilson said.

It was the first meeting between the teams since last year’s American League Division Series, and Carpenter did his part in providing a flashback to a few moments he had during that five-game series.

They’re not memories the Mariners wanted to revisit.

Carpenter, who homered in Game 1 and had four hits and a homer in Game 5 of the ALDS, snapped a 1-1 tie with a two-run shot just out of the reach of Victor Robles as he climbed the wall in right field in the third inning. Carpenter now has seven homers in 12 regular season games against the M’s and two more in the postseason.

Woo noted that Carpenter’s homer wasn’t the hardest hit ball of the night. Not even close. It had an exit velocity of 95.8 mph off the bat, but it was enough to get out.

“It was a good pitch. Kind of unlucky,” Woo said.

Woo ran into trouble in the seventh inning after giving up three straight singles to the bottom three hitters in the Tigers order, loading the bases with one out.

Bazardo entered, but Torres lined a double over the head of Robles in right field, who appeared to mistime his jump for the liner. Torkelson’s homer off Hoppe provided a little cushion going to the ninth.

Outside of the third and the seventh, Woo was solid. He didn’t allow a base runner past first in any of the other innings. He finished with seven strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter, but also was tagged for five earned runs allowed. Eight of the nine hits he allowed were singles.“I’m still frustrated about it. Results or not, or process or not, still have to keep them off the board whether it’s lucky or not,” Woo said. “I think over time, I maybe process it a little bit better, but yeah, still frustrating.”

Crawford ‘dodged a bullet’

Crawford had an eventful beginning to Friday’s series opener against the Tigers and it led to his night ending after less than three innings.

The Mariners starting shortstop was pulled before the start of the bottom of the third inning after he was hit on the right hand by a pitch from Framber Valdez in the top half of the inning.

Valdez was wayward with a 95-mph fastball on a 3-2 pitch that tailed inside and caught Crawford on his throwing hand near his little finger. Crawford initially stayed in the game to run but was forced out at second when Julio Rodríguez grounded into a double play.

When the bottom of the third started, Colt Emerson had moved to shortstop and Patrick Wisdom was in the game at third base.

X-rays were negative, although Crawford was initially concerned it could be worse.

“Same thing that happened last time I broke my hand, but as time went by, it still hurt, but not as bad at the time when I broke it. So I knew we were all good,” Crawford said.

He’ll be re-evaluated before Saturday’s day game, but the Mariners feel like they avoided another significant injury with Cal Raleigh and Brendan Donovan already on the injured list.

“It looked bad. There was a lot of swelling right away. There was some black and blue and the strength wasn’t quite there,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “So it was an opportunity where we thought let’s go get this looked at and we’re just really glad that nothing is too serious at this point.”

Crawford was already dealing with what looked to be a sore ankle after awkwardly sliding into home plate to score a run in the top of the first inning on Rob Refsnyder’s two-out single. Crawford also made an excellent diving stop on Spencer Torkelson’s one-hopper to get a force out at second base in the second inning.Crawford was hitting .224 on the season coming into Friday’s game but with already with 10 homers on the season in early June is on pace for a career best in that category.

“I dodged a bullet there, thankfully,” Crawford said.