Parker Meadows hit a grand slam on a full count with two outs in the ninth inning, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.
Meadows’ home run, which went to the second row in left field, came off a 100.7 mph four-seam fastball thrown by Padres closer Robert Suarez (8-3).
This was the second-fastest pitch a Tigers player has ever homered off of since pitch tracking began in 2008, just behind Jeimer Candelario’s home run off a 102.1 mph pitch on September 7, 2018.
“I faced him (Suarez) last night and I knew he had a good heater. I took a couple of big swings in the at-bat. I tried to settle it down and not do too much and get on top of the heater,” Meadows said.
“I was sprinting out of the box. I didn’t really know if it had a chance. I saw it go over (the fence) and I was hyped.”
Tigers reliever Ricky Vanasco (1-0) got his first win of the season with a scoreless eighth inning. Tyler Holton picked up his seventh save with a scoreless ninth inning. “There is a lot of fight in this group.
There is a lot of desire to be good and finish these games,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Our guys learned that you are never out of it if you just keep stacking good at-bats together.”
San Diego (80-62) had its three-game winning streak ended and remained three games ahead of Arizona for the top NL wild card. Detroit (71-70) is five games behind Kansas City for the last AL wild card, tied with Seattle.
“It is momentum going into the next series,” Meadows said. “Never count us out. You have seen it all year and we were able to do it again tonight, so it was pretty fun.”
Padres starter Martin Pérez kept the Tigers off balance with his varied pitches. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up no runs and three hits while striking out five.
“I was good with everything — my timing, with my delivery, my rhythm was there,” Pérez said. “We (win) the series, and that is a good thing.”
Jurickson Profar hit his 22nd home run, a solo shot, in the first inning, and Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run homer in the second inning to give San Diego a 3-0 lead.
