SAN DIEGO — For much of the night the San Diego Padres appeared to be cruising, but the Detroit Tigers rallied with a grand slam in the ninth to win 4-3 on Thursday night at Petco Park.
Parker Meadows connected a full count with two outs off Padres (80-62) closer Robert Suarez (8-3, 2.54 ERA), tagging a four-seam fastball out to left field for his sixth home run of the season as the Tigers (71-70) avoided the franchises first sweep by San Diego.
“(Suarez) has been fantastic for us, it’s what humans do,” said manager Mike Shildt. “Won’t say he’s spoiled us, but nothing’s automatic in this game.”
The ninth began with Justyn-Henry Malloy lacing the first pitch to right field, then pinch hitter Jacey Jung worked a full count walk. After a Spencer Torkelson flyout, Colt Keith drew another walk on a payoff pitch to load the bases. Kerry Carpenter struck out, unable to catch up to the fastball, setting the table for Meadows.
“They were patient, (Suarez) was around the zone — his fastball was coming out good… just a little spotty on command,” Shildt said.
It spoiled a night where Martín Pérez threw 6 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball, scattering five hits with five strikeouts and one walk. Detroit only managed to get two runners in scoring position against the lefty, who saw the Padres lose for the first time in a game he started.
Jurickson Profar hit a solo shot and Xander Bogaerts stung a two-run home run in the first two innings, as the Padres tagged Detroit’s Casey Mize for a pair of home runs in the first two innings and cracked 13 hard hit balls off the starter according to Baseball Savant.
Profar opened the scoring with two outs, working the count full and launching a middle-high fastball out to right field for his 22nd round-tripper of the season. One inning later Jake Cronenworth led off with a first-pitch double to right, then Bogaerts lined the second pitch he saw into the first row in left field for his eighth long ball in 2024.
Bogaerts finished 3 for 4 on the evening and had two of the final three Padres hits over the last six innings — San Diego had four of their seven hits in the first two innings.
Detroit did not get a runner into scoring position after the first inning until Jake Rogers and Torkelson had back-to-back singles with one out in the seventh. It spelled the end of the evening for Pérez, as Jason Adam came in to get the final two outs of the inning.
First Adam induced a ground out, then with both runners in scoring position got pinch hitter Kerry Carpenter to fish and miss on a low full-count change-up. Tanner Scott got a fly out and a ground out before he allowed a two-out hit but got out of the eighth with a called third strike.
Ricky Vanasco (1-0, 9.00 ERA) earned the win for Detroit as he sat the Padres down in order in the eighth, then Tyler Holton earned his seventh save to close it out.
San Diego remains atop the NL Wild Card standings, their lead holding at 0.5 game over Arizona for the top Wild Card. The Diamondbacks got walked off by the Padres’ incoming opponent, San Francisco, earlier in the day 3-2 at Oracle Park on a ground rule double by Patrick Bailey.
Michael King (11-8, 3.17 ERA) will start Friday’s game against the Giants. It will be his first start since Aug. 29 at St. Louis, giving him seven days of rest as a result of to the off day on Tuesday and Yu Darvish starting on Wednesday. King has not had more than five days rest between starts since the All-Star break in July.
San Francisco will be starting Mason Black (0-2, 7.45 ERA) for the 6:40 p.m. first pitch at Petco Park.