BALTIMORE -- The moment has never gotten too big for the Tigers through their late-season charge into the American League Wild Card race. But as Parker Meadows and Kerry Carpenter converged on Gunnar Henderson’s fly ball to deep right-center field Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the moment might have gotten too loud.

Meadows, whose standout defense has been a key to Detroit’s turnaround, peeled off his route for Carpenter, who seemed to be calling for the ball until he backed away at the last second. The ball fell in between them as Henderson sped into second base for a double on opener Tyler Holton’s first pitch of the night.

It wasn’t the reason the Tigers saw their four-game winning streak end with a 7-1 loss to the O’s, but it was a bad omen for an evening that turned on five Orioles home runs -- four more than they hit in three games at Comerica Park last weekend. It was also an unexpected plot twist for a defense that has been stellar, particularly in the outfield.

"Brain fart on my part," Meadows said. "It's on me. I thought I saw [Carpenter] wave his hands. Just gotta take charge out there. I want every ball. It’s on me."

Said Carpenter: “It was both of our faults. I got close. He thought I waved him off, and I didn’t. I didn’t call it. He didn’t call it. It was right in the middle of us and it ended up falling. Tough break.”

Holton, for his part, nearly picked up his teammates, retiring Austin Slater and Adley Rutschman on groundouts. But instead of a 1-2-3 inning and a clean handoff to bulk pitcher Keider Montero, Holton still had one more out to get. He was within a strike of retiring Anthony Santander before leaving a cutter over the plate that Santander lined over the deepest part of the high wall in left-center for a two-run homer, matching Holton's earned run total over his previous 33 outings since June 29.

“I feel bad for Holton,” Carpenter said. “It’s not his fault. He shouldn’t have had to face Santander in that inning.”

The Tigers have overcome tougher challenges than a two-run deficit early, but O’s starter Corbin Burnes made sure they never recovered, beating the Tigers for the second time in seven days. Once Colton Cowser greeted Montero with a 412-foot drive to straightaway center for another homer, the first of two for Cowser on the night, the O’s were on their way. And for the first time in a month, the Tigers were out of a game by the late innings, losing a game by more than three runs for the first time since Aug. 22 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

It’s not the first time a Detroit club with momentum has looked out of character at this park. The last Tigers team to make the postseason, the 2014 AL Central champions, saw Max Scherzer beaten and Justin Verlander chased after five innings here in the AL Division Series. Still, don’t expect the Tigers to let this defeat carry over to Saturday.

“It was a playoff atmosphere for sure,” Meadows said. “They came out swinging. It’s a three-game series for a reason, so we’re going to come out tomorrow and give it everything we’ve got.”

That atmosphere played a role in the miscue. The crowd noise meant the Tigers had to rely on hand signals rather than simply calling for the ball.

Before Friday’s game, the biggest question for Tigers outfielders seemed to be how to handle the massive territory in left field, where the O’s decision to move the fences back and up created a 398-foot dimension in left center. Meadows and Riley Greene seemed up to the task, but the O’s power surge – including four homers off Montero – rendered their defensive work moot. Instead, the question came in the cozier dimensions of right-center.

“This is another ballpark where I think over half of our guys haven’t been here,” manager A.J. Hinch said before the game. “We spent a lot of the day familiarizing ourselves with the quirks of this park, whether it’s the high fence in right or the Grand Canyon in left.”

Carpenter and Meadows have worked together plenty of times going back to their days as teammates at Double-A Erie in 2022, a breakout season for both. While Meadows has been a defensive star since his arrival in Detroit last August, Carpenter has worked hard to improve his defensive range and reactions.

“It was just the twilight ball where I don’t think either of us saw it too well the whole time,” Carpenter said. “I know I didn’t. It was right in between us.”

Both read the ball correctly. They just didn’t read what the other was going to do. Statcast gave both Meadows and Carpenter a catch probability of 99 percent.