On Sunday night, the Detroit Tigers finally brought Sunday Night Baseball back to Comerica Park for the first time since 2017. Making the most of the opportunity, the 2024 Cy Young winner—Tarik Skubal—fed off the standing crowd’s energy and dominated the Minnesota Twins by notching a 3-0 win. Across seven intense innings, Skubal allowed only one run and one walk and ended up giving zero runs.

Hold on, he even racked up 13 strikeouts. It was a tie for his career best as he left the Twins’ hitters powerless. Interestingly, 45% of Skubal’s pitches were either swinging strikes or called. After this matchup, Skubal joined the historic company of the Tigers’ greats like Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, who hit similar milestones in their prime.

Moreover, now Skubal’s ERA has dropped to 2.15 and he is now the 4th lefty ever who has multiple starts in one season of 13 plus strikeouts. The ones who last achieved this feat are Chris Sale, Randy Johnson and Sandy Koufax. However, despite Skubal’s exceptional play and the Tigers’ win, the mood wasn’t celebratory.

Apparently, tigers’ star outfielder Kerry Carpenter left the game early. He had been battling with a sore hamstring for a while now. Unfortunately, during the sixth inning, he seemed to hurt himself while running to third base.

The Detroit Tigers insider Cody Stavenhagen from the Athletic revealed that Carpenter will be undergoing an MRI on Monday. After this major revelation, Carpenter himself opened up about his hamstring tightness and said, “It feels similar to the last time I had a little issue with it. The staff here has done a great job of getting me back pretty quickly. We’ll see how it goes, but I think we’re all pretty optimistic about it.” Yes, this isn’t the first time.

The first time he strained his left hamstring was back during spring training in February. He felt the same issue during the AL Division series in October as well. Time and again, it has been bothering them throughout this season.

Before Carpenter left Sunday’s game, the slugger ripped an RBI triple into right field. However, after sliding into third, he was visibly hurt. Soon enough, manager AJ Hinch and trainer Kelly Rhoades rushed to the field and helped Carpenter out. Well, given Carpenter’s injury history, it’s kind of concerning for the Tigers now.

Carpenter’s latest injury unravels familiar concerns regarding his durability with the Tigers

Kerry Carpenter, aka Kerry Bonds, has lately been one of the most dangerous hitters in the league. However, the 27-year-old is one of those underappreciated ones in his fourth MLB season. His career slash line of .270/.324/.502 with a .932 is telling enough. In fact, last year he held an OPS of .932.

He has mostly faced right-handed pitchers and his impact has been surreal. In fact, he was right on pace to establish himself as an All-Star this season. However, a pattern attached to Carpenter can’t be ignored. He hasn’t played more than 118 games in one season.

Both of his 2023 and 2024 seasons were mostly spent on the sidelines due to back and shoulder injuries. Now, in the 2025 season, a hamstring injury has again pulled him to the sidelines.

The Tigers are yet to give an official update on his injury. But just the idea of Carpenter making another trip to the injured list is scary, to say the least. If that happens, the Tigers will have no option but to explore the trade market. Their offense is doing well this season, ranking 5th in the league. But at the same time, the depth is somewhere missing.

Clearly, the team can’t afford to lose Carpenter for what he offers to the Tigers’ offensive ecosystem. Otherwise, GM Scott Harris will be an aggressive buyer at this trade deadline.