Martín Pérez pitched well at the start.
Robert Suarez did not do so at the end.
A grand slam by Parker Meadows on a full-count fastball with two outs in the ninth inning lifted the Tigers to a 4-3 victory, denying the Padres a series sweep and keeping them from winning for the seventh time in Pérez’s seven starts.
Suarez, the Padres’ All-Star closer, has been a steady and reliable worker.
“He’s been fantastic for us,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I mean, let’s give him his due. He’s been tremendous. And I wouldn’t say spoiled us, but you know, nothing is automatic in this game.”
Pérez had been a when, not an if, for the Padres. As in, when he pitched, the Padres won, regardless of whethe he pitched particularly well or even pitched poorly.
After three rough starts, he looked on Thursday like the pitcher who posted a 1.96 ERA in his first three starts after the Padres acquired him at the trade deadline. And the Padres were a strike away from making Jurickson Profar’s solo home run in the first inning and Xander Bogaerts’ two-run homer in the second stand up.
But Meadows, the Tigers’ No.9 hitter, sent a 101 mph fastball on a full count the other way and just over the wall in left field.
Suarez had loaded the bases on a single and a walk at the start and another walk with one out before a strikeout got him to the brink of his 32nd save.
Instead, he had his third blown save and third loss.
Pérez did his part by allowing five hits and walking one over 6⅓ scoreless innings at the start.
He left two men on for Jason Adam, who finished the seventh before Tanner Scott worked a scoreless eighth.
But Suarez, working for the fourth time in five days and a night after throwing 19 pitches in closing out a 6-5 victory on Wednesday, was largely off the plate from the start.
“I threw a lot of pitches, and that’s something that affected me towards the end of it, just throwing a lot of pitches,” Suarez said through interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “… I felt it was a good pitch and it was exactly where I wanted it, and he put a good swing to it. And just, things happen.”
His sixth pitch to Meadows was near the top of the zone and caught just enough of the outside portion of the plate. The rookie’s sixth home run in 187 at-bats this season left the ballpark about 2 mph slower than the pitch he hit. It was the first go-ahead grand slam by a Tigers player with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning of a game since San Diegan Alan Trammell hit one against the Yankees on June 21, 1998.
The Padres had Jackson Merrill at the plate with two outs and Bogaerts on first base in the bottom of the ninth. But the rookie, who has come through in big moments late in games more than any teammate, flied out to center field to end the game.
The Padres really did not threaten much after their two early blasts, though an occurence in the fifth inning might have been unjust or might have just been unfortunate.
Elías Díaz, the veteran catcher making his first start for the Padres on Thursday, led off the fifth with a double. Mason McCoy, the next batter, attempted to lay down a bunt that bounced up and hit him after he had left the box, and he was called out. That play is not reviewable, though television replays appeared to show the ball hitting McCoy a first time while he was in the box.
A fly ball deep in the right-center field gap by Luis Arraez and a groundout by Fernando Tatis Jr. followed.
The Padres did not have another hit until Bogaerts’ two-out single in the ninth.
They remain a half-game up on the Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s top wild-card spot with 20 games remaining. A three-game series against the Giants begins Friday at Petco Park.
“We just play every day,” Shildt said of bouncing back quicjky as the playoff chase zooms on. “We just play the game the right way every day. That’s what we do. So we’ll be just fine.”
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