Tigers 4, Padres 3: Parker Meadows stuns San Diego with a 9th inning slam

Sitting at .500, the Detroit Tigers needed to find a win to salvage a game from the San Diego Padres. They got some rocky pitching early and couldn’t do much with the opposing starter and it seemed like they were headed to their fourth losing sweep of the year and back under the .500 mark.

I must admit, I was already writing them off as I typed up a full recap for a loss and was waiting for the inevitable. Well, you know what else is inevitable? The Tigers offense flipping the script in the 9th inning. Facing the flame-throwing Robert Suarez, with the bases loaded, two outs, and a full count, Parker Meadows hit a grand slam to give the Tigers the late lead and the Tigers held on to win 4-3.

Things sure didn’t seem like they would be going the Tigers’ way early on. Martin Perez, who flummoxed the Tigers for eight innings in Pittsburgh back on April 9th, was even better in this game for the Padres. The best threat the Tigers had against him was in the first inning, when they put two on with one out, thanks to an Andy Ibañez single and a Riley Greene walk. But they were set down quietly after that.

Meanwhile, Casey Mize, making his second start since returning from the injured list, struggled with his command and keeping the ball in the yard early in this one. Jurickson Profar took him deep on a fastball middle and up to give the Padres an early 1-0 lead.

Colt Keith got a one-out single in the second but was erased on an inning-ending double play. Hard contact greeted Mize in the bottom of the inning as Jake Cronenworth hit a leadoff double and then Xander Bogaerts took a hanging slider and put it where good hitters put hanging sliders to make the Padre’s lead 3-0. The next two batters continued the hard contact but fortunately found gloves to allow Mize to get out of the inning.

Parker Meadows led off the third with a single, desperately trying to start something, but Perez would not let the Tigers start anything as he again set down the Tigers with ease to end the inning. Both teams traded zeros from there for a few innings. Perez hummed along, retiring the next 9 batters in a row. Mize finally found his groove and was able to get through the next three innings with only a double and a single allowed. He left the game with one out in the sixth as AJ Hinch turned to Kenta Maeda who closed out the inning. Mize’s final line ended up being not horrible: 5.1 IP, 3 ER, 6H, 1BB, 2K, 83 pitches. There was plenty of hard contact that found gloves though.

Meanwhile, Perez had retired 13 Tigers in a row before Jake Rogers singled to put a man on with one out in the top of the seventh. This seemed to finally get Perez off his game as he struggled to throw the ball in the zone and eventually gave up a single to Spencer Torkelson to put two Tigers on base for the first time since the first inning. Not taking any chances, Mike Shildt went to his bullpen and brought in Jason Adam. Colt Keith moved the runners into scoring position on a groundout to second and Hinch brought in Kerry Carpenter to pinch hit with two out and two on. Carpenter worked the count full before swinging through a changeup to end the threat.

Maeda pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh. Meadows singled to lead off the eighth against Tanner Scott, working his third game of this three-game series, thanks to the strange mid-series off day. He didn’t look any worse for wear as he dispatched the top three Tigers hitters with ease. The bottom of the inning saw the Tigers debut of Ricky Vanasco who pitched a 1-2-3 inning himself.

The top of the ninth saw the Padres bring on their closer, Robert Suarez. Justyn-Henry Malloy led off with a single. Jace Jung pinch-hit for Jake Rogers and drew a walk as Suarez seemed to struggle with the command of his triple-digit heat. Torkelson got to 2-0 count but popped out to shallow right-center on a heater (have we mentioned he struggles to hit high-velocity pitches?). Colt Keith came to the plate and drew a walk to load the bases. That brought Kerry Carpenter to the plate but he struck out as Suarez reared back and just pumped 100+ MPH pitch after 100+ MPH pitch by Kerry. He finally got him to strikeout on a nasty changeup down below the zone.

This left it up to Parker Meadows vs Suarez who had completely abandoned any pitch other than his triple-digit heater. He sprayed pitches over the outside area of the plate. Parker worked the count full before he connected on a 101 MPH pitch on the outer corner and sent it over the left field wall for a grand slam to stun the crowd and give the Tigers a 4-3 lead

Hinch turned to his most trusted bullpen arm, Jason Foley Tyler Holton. He got two quick outs before Bogarts hit a two-out single, his third hit of the ninth to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in the young Jackson Merrill. But he flew out harmlessly to shallow center and the Tigers completed one of their most memorable comebacks of the year, in a year full of late-inning heroics. The Tigers will pack up and take a quick 90-minute flight up the California coast to Oakland for their likely last visit ever to the Oakland Coliseum to take on the Athletics.

Notes:

• History made

• Had them right where they wanted them