Parker Meadows has made a big impact for the Detroit Tigers since coming off the injured list.
The rookie center fielder produced his third straight two-hit game and robbed Seattle’s Cal Raleigh of a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning Wednesday night during the visiting Tigers’ 6-2 victory.
Detroit will try to sweep the three-game series Thursday night in Seattle.
“It was a huge play, a game-changer,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said of Meadows’ catch. “When the ball is hit to center, I feel settled because you feel like Parker is going to make (the catch).”
Meadows, who was out for nearly a month with a strained right hamstring, is 6-for-14 (.429) since returning Saturday against Kansas City. He singled twice on Wednesday after hitting a run-scoring single and a 415-foot homer to center field the previous night as the Tigers won the series opener in Seattle 4-2.
However, those moments were overshadowed the next night by his catch that preserved a victory for left-hander Tarik Skubal.
With the Tigers leading 3-2 and a runner at second and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Raleigh — who hit a two-run homer to center in the fourth inning — hit a high blast to deep right-center off reliever Jason Foley.
The 6-foot-5 Meadows — whose nickname is “Baby Giraffe” because of his lanky frame — ranged back to the wall, timed his leap perfectly and reached well above the top of the wall to make the catch. Meadows let out a yell and pounded his chest once in celebration while beginning to race back to the dugout.
“My job was to get to the wall and get to a spot, look up and find it,” Meadows said. “In that situation, it is pretty cool. You saw the emotions. I don’t do that very often.”
Skubal, who attended Seattle University, allowed two runs on three hits over seven innings to boost his American League Cy Young Award candidacy. Skubal is not only tied for the American League lead in wins (13) with Kansas City’s Seth Lugo and Baltimore’s Grayson Rodriguez, but he also tops the league in ERA (2.57) and strikeouts (171), putting him in contention for a rare pitching Triple Crown.
“It’s always fun for me to throw here,” said Skubal, who had a large contingent of Redhawks fans in attendance. “But I’ve got to not make the game anything bigger than it is. That’s definitely a challenge when I throw here, but it’s fun.”
The Mariners lost their third game in a row and fell a half-game behind the Houston Astros in the AL West.
“It’s one of those games where you’ve got to keep it close and you hopefully come up with a big hit at the end of the game and you win the game,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of the Wednesday defeat. “We did everything right. They just made a play. (Meadows) made the play.”
Raleigh said the Mariners have lacked energy the past two nights.
“We’ve got to get going,” he said. “Things happen and you can’t play perfect every game, but we can bring the energy every game and we have definitely got to start, night in night out.
“It’s that time of year. Everybody’s tired. Everybody’s hurt. Every team, every player has their things. We can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to keep going.”
Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (5-1, 2.08 ERA) is scheduled to pitch the series finale, when he’ll face Detroit for the first time. The Tigers have not yet named a starter and will likely go with a bullpen game.
–Field Level Media
