Improbable comeback by the Detroit Tigers in the 9th inning gives them a 4-3 victory over the Padres

The Detroit Tigers were facing their final blow.

Parker Meadows stood at the plate with the bases loaded, three balls, two strikes and two outs against San Diego Padres right-handed reliever Robert Suarez. Meadows, a left-hander, hit a 100.7 mph, steeply up-and-away fastball and hit the ball the opposite way for a grand slam into left field.

Meadows' decisive swing at the start of the ninth inning accounted for all four runs for the Tigers, who beat the Padres 4-3 in the finale of the three-game series at Petco Park on Thursday, thus avoiding a sweep.

“A lot of things have to happen for us to do this,” manager AJ Hinch told reporters in San Diego, “and then Parker hits a ball in the air and hits a four-run home run. That's just as cool a moment for him as it is for us in a big game. Unbelievable win.”

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The Tigers (71-70) are five games behind the Kansas City Royals for the third and final wild-card spot in the American League with 21 games remaining. (The Seattle Mariners are also five games back in the race, with the Boston Red Sox a half-game behind them.)

“It's always nice, but it's not always perfect,” Hinch said. “We'll play the 27 outs, and more if we need to, with extra innings. There's a lot of competitive spirit in this group. There's a lot of desire to be good and to close these games out. If we get rewarded for that with a lot of good at-bats, that's great. I think our guys have learned that if you keep trying to string together good at-bats, you never lose your momentum. We didn't do that early on, but that doesn't mean we can't do it later.”