Meadows comes up clutch in 9th with first career grand slam
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SAN DIEGO -- Four young Tigers formed a circle behind home plate Thursday night, arms intertwined. They were the only ones making noise in a sold-out Petco Park.
Parker Meadows hushed the crowd with two outs in the top of the ninth inning by hitting his first career grand slam in the Tigers’ 4-3 victory over the Padres. Meadows got enough of All-Star closer Robert Suarez’s full-count 100.7 mph fastball to send it over the left-field wall.
The ball traveled only a Statcast-projected 361 feet, but the opposite-field drive was enough to erase a three-run deficit. It was the first grand slam hit with any MLB team down three runs with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning (or later) since Justin Smoak on Aug. 31, 2018. It's only the seventh such slam since 1912.
Perhaps more important to the Tigers is that Meadows prevented a three-game sweep at the hands of the Padres and buoyed their postseason hopes. Detroit moved back within five games of the idle Royals for the final AL Wild Card spot.