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The homer Carpenter hit went a long way, as he took advantage of a terrible slider. I’m not sure whether it’s a lack of work or what, but Clase was not himself yesterday. Everything was up, and the bottom of the Tigers order, Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney, was able to get the bat to the ball early in the count for two singles that brought Carpenter to the plate. Clase’s final three pitches to Carpenter were all sliders, all up in the zone. A typical Clase slider has 30 inches of vertical break and seven inches of horizontal break, or what we might call “filthy.” The slider Carpenter hit? 23 inches of vertical, one inch of horizontal. The Statcast term for this is “cookie.”
