Other than helping the Mariners move onto the ALCS, we would guess that Seattle starter George Kirby wanted nothing more than to get Kerry Carpenter to go down swinging.
Carpenter went into Game 1 of the ALDS with four career home runs off of Kirby, but it didn't become a narrative until that game, when Carpenter took him deep to score two and put the Tigers on top. That made five career hits for Carpenter against Kirby, all of them home runs.
Their teams cued up at least a couple more meetings between them for Game 5, with Kirby making his second appearance of the series.