It would be a stretch to call the Seattle Mariners rivals of the Detroit Tigers, no matter how much Tigers fans booed Seattle first baseman Josh Naylor on Friday.

But the Tigers have played the Mariners a lot since the beginning of 2025, more than any other non-divisional opponent (12 games) except the Boston Red Sox. And that familiarity may be helping them extend their hot streak.

The Tigers beat the Mariners, 7-3, on Friday, June 5, at Comerica Park in Detroit. The win brought their win streak to four games after a 6-22 record in May left them 16 games under .500.

And two of the best performances of the night came from two players very familiar with what Seattle has to offer – starting pitcher Framber Valdez and right fielder Kerry Carpenter.

Framber Valdez beats a former rival

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch didn’t seem convinced that the Tigers are all that familiar with the Mariners, with the exception of one key player.

“Except for the playoff series last year, we don’t play them a ton. Framber has,” he said “He’s played them his whole career a lot, and so he’s got a lot of history with that lineup, especially at the top with [Randy] Arozarena and Julio [Rodríguez] and J.P. [Crawford], and so he had to battle and he did.”

Valdez has done well pitching through adversity lately, with Friday’s game adding to a tally of impressive starts in 2026. He only got through five innings, but Valdez pitched through the rain while allowing scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth with two runners on, both times representing game-tying opportunities for the Mariners.

“I wasn’t putting my head down. I was ready to go as deep as I could, and it was in my mind, ‘I’m not going to let him score,’” he said. “When situations needed a big time, I stepped up.”

Friday’s win was Valdez’s sixth start this season of at least five innings allowing one run or fewer, as his clutch pitching helped keep a powerful Seattle team (fourth in the American League in slugging percentage at .398) from doing much damage through the first half of the game.

Valdez’s win makes him 8-4 all-time against the Mariners over 17 regular-season starts (16 of them with the Houston Astros), sporting a 3.43 ERA against Seattle, in line with his career average. His team has won five of his last six games against the Mariners, with Valdez showing out against his old divisional rival for the first time as a Tiger.

THE GAME: Tigers stay hot, beat Mariners 7-3 off Carpenter and Torkelson HRs

The lefty said his familiarity with the lineup helped him on Friday, but that it wasn’t the only thing that led to a win.

“The familiarity helps a lot, but at the end of the day, I gave myself an opportunity to study what I already know and improve the things that I didn’t know,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m just doing my best and giving my best on the field.”

Kerry Carpenter mashes vs Mariners

Carpenter’s third-inning home run against Seattle starter Bryan Woo was his seventh of the year and ninth of his career against the Mariners, including the two home runs he hit against them in last year’s ALDS.

With those two postseason home runs included, Carpenter has more home runs against the Mariners than any other opponent.

“It’s weird because their pitchers are so good and they strike me out a lot, and I happened to get [Woo] a little bit,” he said.

Carpenter finished 1-for-4 with two strikeouts, but his two-run home run in the third brought the Tigers a 3-1 lead. In his three games since returning from the injured list, Carpenter already has five hits, four RBIs and two home runs, providing pop to a Tigers lineup that suffered a power outage through May.

“[Carpenter] hits the fly ball that carries out of the ballpark, which was a really big blow early just because it was so hard to get the big hit against [Woo],” Hinch said after the game, also praising second baseman Gleyber Torres for his 3-for-4 day. “You want to see what those two guys are worth to this lineup, they contributed in great fashion.”

Torres had the most impressive day at the plate with his two-RBI double in the seventh extending Detroit’s lead to 5-2, while first baseman Spencer Torkelson’s eighth-inning home run ended up the finishing touch on a solid win. But on a night where every Tigers starter recorded at least one hit, it was Carpenters big fly in the third that got the offense going.

The Tigers get five more games against the Mariners this season (two over the next two days to finish out the home series), and Carpenter is looking forward to all of them – and he has a reason for that beyond his historic success against Seattle.

“I love playing them here, but I love playing them in Seattle, too. My wife’s family is from up there, so it’s always fun to be out there.”

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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.

DETROIT – A 14-year-old boy nearly died after a bullet passed through his chest, missing his heart by just a few centimeters during a teen takeover in Downtown Detroit last month.

Tavuan Clark is now back home recovering, and he wants other teenagers to hear his story.

“I want to say stop the violence and violence is not cool,” Tavuan said.

The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. on May 17 near the intersection of Farmer Street and Grand River Avenue. Police say an argument over an electric scooter escalated into a physical fight between two groups of teenagers and gunfire erupted.

Tavuan, a soon-to-be 9th grader, had been hanging out with friends downtown when the chaos broke out.

“Was going to fight again and then I just heard gunshots going off,” he said. “I just know I couldn’t breathe and I had to drop down.”

It took him about a minute to realize he had been shot.

He was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Michigan in critical condition. Doctors worked to stop the bleeding and discovered how close he came to not surviving.

“The bullet went right through his chest, missed his heart by just a few centimeters — and it could’ve been the difference between life and death for him,” said Dr. Scott Langenburg, chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Langenburg says children too often don’t survive these situations. On Friday, he joined Detroit Medical Center’s “End Gun Violence” rally, where families and staff were taught how to “stop the bleed.”

He pointed to a deeper problem fueling the violence.

“People reacting, people not controlling their anger and just not being kind to one another,” Langenburg said.

Tavuan’s mother, Tracey Clark, is still processing what happened to her son.

“I’m just happy to have my son and to have him walking around,” she said.

Tavuan spent days in the hospital before returning home.

His recovery is ongoing, but he’s already back with friends and looking ahead to getting back on the football field. His mother has even bigger dreams for him.

“I want to see him succeed. I want to see him go a little further. I would love to see him on the Lions,” Tracey said.

Suspect charged as adult

A 17-year-old, identified as Ramon Javon Perez Smith, was charged as an adult in connection with the shooting.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office charged him with Assault with Intent to Murder, Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm, Felonious Assault, Carrying a Concealed Weapon, and three counts of Felony Firearm. His bond was set at $500,000.

A second suspect, a 16-year-old, was taken into custody at the scene and faces juvenile charges for carrying a concealed weapon.