Tonight, Carbo himself deposited a baseball into that same upper deck, and in doing so, provided the margin of victory as his Boston Red Sox beat the Tigers, 3-2.
Carbo, a Livonia native, slammed a solo homer in the eighth inning to give Boston a 3-1 lead, and the Tigers couldn't make up the small deficit.
It was a local kid who hurt the Tigers with his bat, but it was a Cuban who baffled them on the mound.
Luis Tiant twirled eight innings of six-hit ball for the victory. Tiant walked one and struck out four.
Dick Drago pitched a fairly uneventful ninth for the save.
Carbo led off the eighth by drilling the first pitch from rookie Ike Brookens about five rows into the upper deck in right field.
"You have to be careful," Carbo said afterward. "That porch looks so close. It's easy to overswing. Fortunately I stayed within myself and got a good rip at it."
Carbo delivered for the 15 or so friends and family in the Tiger Stadium stands
Was the home run extra special because it came in his hometown?
"I had about 15 people in the stands tonight," Carbo said of friends and family. "So, yeah."
Joe Coleman (3-9) took the tough loss, despite seven strong innings.
The Tigers (23-35) dropped the final two games of the series after winning Monday night, and are now 10-22 at home.
The New York Yankees come calling for a four-game set to complete the 12-game home stand, on which the Tigers are 2-6.
"Another strong pitching start wasted," manager Ralph Houk lamented. "That's pretty much the long and short of it. Joe (Coleman) deserved better."
Especially since Coleman wasn't the one who grooved a fastball that Carbo crushed, as Brookens did.
It's one of baseball's odd scoring rules that gives the loss to Coleman, even though the eventual margin of victory was achieved off Brookens.
But any way you slice it, the Tigers are 3-8 in the 11 games after their five-game winning streak out west.
Thanks, in part, to a former kid fan of the Tigers.
Notes: Ron LeFlore (2-for-4 tonight) raised his average to .301, on the strength of a 14-for-29 hot streak...In the ninth, Drago walked Jack Pierce with one out but then retired Aurelio Rodriguez (ground out) and pinch-hitter Ben Oglivie (fly out) to earn the save...The Tigers committed two more errors, giving them 58 for the season. "That's not helping," Houk said of his team's leaky defense.
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Tigers record: 23-35 (actual 25-33)
Home: 10-22
Away: 13-13
Last 10: 3-7
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