DETROIT — Tigers' manager AJ Hinch saved his biggest left-handed bench bat for last.

Kerry Carpenter came off the bench with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth with the Tigers trailing the Cleveland Guardians 3-2. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt had been alternating right-handed and left-handed relievers since the sixth inning, forcing Hinch to unload all five extra players from his bench.

Carpenter was the last man standing. And he delivered a dramatic 429-foot home run into the shrubs in center field.

Alas, it was only a stay of execution for the Tigers.

Plans for a clinching party at Comerica Park on Thursday have been canceled.

The Guardians scored four runs in the top of the 10th off reliever Will Vest to beat the Tigers, 7-5, on Tuesday, reducing their deficit in the Central Division to 5.5 games, ensuring the Tigers cannot lock up the division at the end of this three-game series.

The first four hitters against Vest in the 10th: Steven Kwan double, Angel Martinez triple, Jose Ramirez double, Kyle Manzardo double.

The Tigers didn't roll over. Spencer Torkelson capped a four-hit night with a two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th, his 29th homer.

The Guardians were nearly flawless defensively, throwing out two Tigers on the bases. Ramirez at third base and Gabriel Arias at shortstop both made big plays to stall potential big innings, as did Kwan in left.

Before Carpenter's homer, the Tigers hit 13 balls with exit velocities over 99 mph, six were outs.

One of the Tigers outs on the bases came at home plate.

Andy Ibanez was trying to score from first on a double down the left-field line by Dillon Dingler in the second inning. But the Guardians executed a perfect relay — left fielder Kwan to Arias to catcher Bo Naylor.

Torkelson led off the sixth inning with his second single of the game. With the Tigers down by two runs, he was thrown out by Naylor trying to advance on a ball in the dirt.

The Tigers still managed to scratch out a run in the sixth. A pinch-hit single by Colt Keith moved Riley Greene (hit by pitch) around to third where he scored on a fielder’s choice groundout by Dingler.

Gleyber Torres’ 16th homer in the third inning provided the Tigers’ first run. He jumped a 3-0 fastball and drove it 402 feet over the fence in left. The ball left his bat with an exit velocity of 110.9 mph.

Casey Mize brought his A-stuff to the party Tuesday. He hit 97 mph with his four-seam fastball in the first inning and he was dotting both his hard slider and splitter.

The splitter, especially, was on point. He struck out eight in his 5 1/3 innings, six with the splitter. He got 10 whiffs on 22 swings at that pitch.

But as good as his stuff was, his luck was less so.

After striking out the first two hitters in the second inning, he got two strikes on lefty-swinging Nolan Jones and then got him hit a ground ball to the right side. The ball took a high hop over first baseman Torkelson’s glove for a double.

C.J. Kayfus followed with a first-pitch, RBI single.

In the fourth, again with two outs, Arias ambushed a first-pitch elevated fastball and lined an opposite-field homer to right.

With the Tigers down 2-1 in the sixth, Mize gave up a two-strike, softly-struck single to Ramirez. Manzardo followed, hitting a hard ground ball to Torkelson.

Mize, uncharacteristically, was late covering first and Manzardo was safe. A double by Naylor made it a 3-1 game with runners still on second and third and no outs.

Mize struck out Arias for the first out and Hinch summoned lefty Tyler Holton.

And Holton stopped the rally. He got right-handed pinch-hitter to hit a ground ball to shortstop Javier Baez. Baez made a slick backhand play on the ball and threw a dart to the plate to get Manzardo.

Holton struck out lefty Kayfus to keep it a two-run deficit.

It was big at the time

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