Martín Pérez threw well at the beginning.
Robert Suarez did not succeed in doing this in the end.
A grand slam by Parker Meadows on a full-count fastball with two outs in the ninth inning helped the Tigers to a 4-3 victory, preventing the Padres from clinching the series and preventing their seventh win in Pérez’s seven starts.
Suarez, the Padres’ All-Star closer, was a consistent and reliable worker.
“He’s been fantastic for us,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I mean, we have to give him his due. He’s been great. And I wouldn’t say he’s spoiled us, but you know, nothing happens automatically in this game.”
Pérez was an “if” and not an “if” for the Padres. When he pitched, the Padres won, regardless of whether he pitched particularly well or even poorly.
After three rocky starts, he looked like the pitcher who posted a 1.96 ERA in his first three starts after the Padres signed him at the trade deadline Thursday. And the Padres were one strike away from capitalizing on Jurickson Profar’s solo home run in the first inning and Xander Bogaerts’ two-run home run in the second.
But Meadows, the Tigers’ No. 9 hitter, sent a 101-mile-per-hour fastball the other way on a full count, just over the left-field wall.
Suarez started off by loading the bases with a single and a walk and another walk with one out before a strikeout brought him to the brink of his 32nd save.
Instead, he experienced his third botched save and his third loss.
Pérez contributed by allowing five hits in the opening game and one walk in 6.5 scoreless innings.
He left two men on the bench for Jason Adam, who finished the seventh inning before Tanner Scott pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
But Suarez, making his fourth appearance in five days and one night after making 19 shots to close out a 6-5 win on Wednesday, was largely out of action from the start.
“I made a lot of shots and that affected me towards the end, just made a lot of shots,” Suarez said through interpreter Pedro Gutiérrez. “… I felt like it was a good shot and it was right where I wanted it and he hit it well. And that’s how things happen.”
His sixth pitch to Meadows was near the top of the zone and hit just enough of the outside part of the plate. The rookie’s sixth home run in 187 at-bats this season left the stadium about 2 mph slower than the pitch he hit. It was the first grand slam by a Tigers player with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning of a game since San Diego’s Alan Trammell hit one against the Yankees on June 21, 1998.
The Padres had Jackson Merrill at bat with two outs and Bogaerts on first base in the ninth inning, but the rookie, who has made more appearances at key moments late in games than any other teammate, flied to center field, ending the game.
The Padres no longer posed a real threat after their two early hits, although an incident in the fifth inning may have been unfair or just unfortunate.
Elías Díaz, the veteran catcher making his first start for the Padres on Thursday, opened the fifth with a double. Mason McCoy, the next batter, attempted a bunt that bounced up and hit him after he left the box, and he was ruled an out. That play is unverifiable, although television replays appeared to show that the ball first hit McCoy while he was in the box.
This was followed by a fly ball deep into the gap between right and center field by Luis Arraez and a groundout by Fernando Tatis Jr.
The Padres didn’t have another hit until Bogaerts’ two-out single in the ninth inning.
With 20 games to go, they still have a half-game lead over the Diamondbacks in the race for the best wildcard spot in the National League. A three-game series against the Giants begins on Friday at Petco Park.
“We’re just playing every day,” Shildt said of the quick return as the playoff chase continues to grow. “We’re just playing the game the right way every day. That’s what we do. So we’re going to be fine.”
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