Saturday, April 26

DETROIT -- Kerry Carpenter’s three home runs in two games Friday and Saturday brought the nickname back out in full force: Kerry Bonds. It’s an endearing play on words off of Barry Bonds, the legendary Pirates and Giants slugger.

“I think it’s a little bit of high praise,” Carpenter said of the moniker. “I accept the nickname, but I’m probably not going to call myself that.”

Everybody in the Tigers’ clubhouse seems to use it. But where did it start?

“Beau Brieske is the first one who called me that, as far as I know, in 2022,” Carpenter said. “We’ve been friends ever since we’ve been drafted.”

Yes, the Tigers slugger’s nickname came from, of all people, a pitcher. And according to Brieske, it began before Carpenter even turned his swing change into a breakout season in Detroit’s farm system.

“People are probably not going to agree when that comes up,” Brieske said. “But yes, I was calling him that in the Minor Leagues when we were playing in Double-A together in 2021, before people even knew who he was, really.

“I was like, ‘That’s Kerry Bonds. He rakes.’”

Carpenter was in his first season at Double-A Erie in 2021. He hit well for someone in their first full Minor League campaign, slashing .262/.319/.433 with 24 doubles, 15 home runs and 74 RBIs. But the 19th-round pick in the 2019 Draft was a supporting hitter in a lineup that featured higher Draft picks and top prospects Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Dillon Dingler and Ryan Kreidler for most of the summer. Brieske, a 27th-round pick in ‘19, played with Carpenter in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League that summer, then joined him at Double-A midway through the 2021 season.

More than a prophecy, it began as a play on words with the name, something he did for other players on that team.

“That’s just kind of a thing that I like to do,” Brieske said. “I like to give guys nicknames that kind of just fit.”

Plus, Brieske said: “People forget that he was the GCL MVP. He raked at every level. Obviously, he wasn’t at the level that he got to the following year [in 2022], but he was still a very good hitter. He was still well-above average for a Double-A hitter in 2021.

“At that point, it was more so like a joke, because it’s fitting. Kerry Bonds? It kind of went well. But then, the funniest part was that it started to really gain traction when the swing started to take off.”

By now, the story is legend. Carpenter, working with hitting instructor Richard Schenck, revamped his swing in Spring Training of 2022, repeated at Erie, then his hitting took off. He hit 13 home runs in May for the SeaWolves.

“Obviously, that is something that he would never compare himself to,” Brieske said. “It’s funny that we would call him that, because who wants to be compared to Barry Bonds? No one wants that, ever. It was just a funny joke. And then the next year, he starts hitting.”

By that point, Brieske was in the big leagues, called up to Detroit to help fill a void in an injury-depleted rotation. But he was still telling people about the nickname.

“Then it really started to flow,” Brieske said. “I was here and I was telling people in the clubhouse, ‘You guys are going to learn: Kerry Bonds is coming. This dude rakes.’

“You’re looking at his numbers in Erie and you’re saying, ‘He shouldn’t be in Erie.’ And then you’d look at his numbers when he was in [Triple-A] Toledo and you’re like, ‘He shouldn’t be in Toledo.’”

By August, Carpenter joined Brieske in Detroit. And after six home runs in 103 at-bats down the stretch of that season, the nickname took off.

“It’s funny that he remembers it,” Brieske said of the origins, “because it was just a funny joke at the time when it first started. Now that’s the nickname that everyone thinks of with him. It just goes to show that it’s a good nickname, honestly.”

Colt Keith’s streak of drawing a walk in eight consecutive games ended in Monday’s 6-2 win over the Yankees. Who was the last Tiger with a longer streak?

A. Miguel Cabrera

B. Tony Clark

C. Robbie Grossman

D. Bobby Higginson

In case you missed it, the Tigers moved game times for this week’s three-game series against the Yankees from evening to afternoon, including Tuesday and Wednesday to 1:10 p.m. ET, due to a forecast of cold temperatures and sub-freezing wind chills.

Tickets for each respective game are good for the new start times. If fans can’t make it, they’ll receive options for exchanging their tickets for another game and seat of equal value during this season.

Fans who bought tickets through an authorized secondary retailer, such as StubHub, SeatGeek or Ticketmaster, should contact the retailer directly to get their weather policies and options.

C. Robbie Grossman

He walked in nine consecutive games from June 30-July 9, 2021, the longest streak by a Tiger in the Comerica Park era (since 2000).

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