'You can't script it any better': Tigers' Meadows belts walk-off homer against Astros
Chris McCosky
Detroit – All Parker Meadows wanted to do was go out and see his mother. As reporters circled his locker, he was texting her.
"They showed your mother crying on television," Meadows was told.
"I know, she's still crying," Meadows said. "I need to get out and try to comfort here."
Not to worry, Staci Meadows' tears were joyful.
She'd just watched her youngest son, in his fourth big-league game, hit his first career home run − a dramatic, three-run, walk-off home run off closer Ryan Pressly, sending the Tigers to a most improbable 4-1 win over the Houston Astros Friday at Comerica Park.
"I can't put it into words, honestly," Meadows said. "It does not feel real."
This game, as Tigers' manager AJ Hinch appropriately summed up, was both pretty amazing and pretty weird. It contained the following:
∎ Astros lefty starter Framber Valdez, who threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 1, had another one going for seven innings. He needed 93 pitches to complete the first one. He was at 114 pitches in seven innings in this one and manager Dusty Baker had to pull him.
"We couldn't get him off the ground," Hinch said, referencing the 13 ground-ball outs Valdez induced with his bowling-ball sinker. "But our at-bats were good. We worked (five) walks. The only reason he had to come out of the game came because of the quality of at-bats we had. We made him work."
Kerry Carpenter came off the bench with one out in the eighth and shot a single to right field off reliever Bryan Abreu to finally get the zero off the Tigers' hit line.
∎ Tigers starter Matt Manning just about matched him through six innings. He allowed one infield hit (which could be subject to a post-game review) and one unearned run and threw just 80 pitches. That one hit, an RBI single by Jose Altuve came on a tapper to third that bounced off Zack Short's glove in the second inning. It was the only hit the Astros got in the entire game.
So, if there is a scoring change, the Tigers will have pitched their second combined no-hitter in six weeks, with relievers Brendan White (1.2 innings) and Alex Lange finishing what Manning started.
∎ Manning, though, left the game with one out in the seventh. He appeared to tweak something in his back on a pitch, a slider, to Yainer Diaz.
"It looked like he slipped on the pitch before," Hinch said. "His spike caught or whatever, but the back grabbed at him a little bit...He was uncomfortable."
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Catcher Jake Rogers was the first to the mound. Shortstop Javier Báez got there, too, and he waved Hinch and trainer Chris McDonald out to the mound.
"We debated whether to even let him throw a pitch," Hinch said. "He was wincing. I got right up to him and I said, 'Listen, we're not taking any chances. If I see anything, it'll be the end of the night.'"
Manning winced on his test pitch. Night over. Tests were being done after the game and Hinch didn't have any further information.
"He was in the middle of that celebration," he said. "That's a good sign."
∎ Hinch, by the way, wasn't around to see the heroic finish. At least not on the field.
He was ejected in the bottom of the seventh inning after a spirited face-to-face with home plate umpire Laz Diaz. Watching Valdez carve up Tigers hitters inning after inning, Hinch came out of the dugout after Diaz called Báez out on strikes.
Hinch's beef was that Valdez threw the final pitch to Báez after the pitch-timer expired.
"I saw it at zero," Hinch said. "Valdez moved and picked up (his foot) and Javy gets frozen. Javy saw zero, too. I didn't need video to see the timer go. Then when I got out there, Laz said he felt the indicator (go off) but he felt like (Valdez) had started and that's what I disagreed with."
The umpire gets the alert from the time keeper in the press box. If the indicator goes off, it's a violation. No further interpretation is needed.
"We have these regulations for a reason," Hinch said. "Pitchers are getting really good at cutting it close. I think he cut it too close. At that time of the game, to make that mistake, I couldn't tolerate it."
It was just the second time Hinch has been ejected this season.
"I thought they were going to call it," said Báez, who was back in the lineup after missing the last two games with the flu. "The clock went to zero and I didn't want to call time because it was too late in the clock. But I don't want to strike out when I am not ready. It is what it is. AJ had my back."
Báez would exact his payback in the ninth.
After being no-hit for seven innings by Valdez, the Tigers went into the ninth down 1-0. Pressly struck out pinch-hitter Akil Baddoo and Riley Greene and got two strikes on Miguel Cabrera.
Cabrera had made the loudest contract against Valdez back in the second inning. He lofted a fly ball to right field that Kyle Tucker reached and plucked off the top of the plants that sit just behind the wall.
Down to his last strike, he fouled off two 1-2 fastballs and then swatted a slider up the middle for a single. Pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry singled to right field and Baez tied the game with a broken bat dunker to center field.
That set the stage for Meadows.
"You can't script it any better," Hinch said.
Meadows got ahead in the count, 2-1, which in itself was impressive.
"In that position, people tend to get overly aggressive and press a little bit," Meadows said. "I just reminded myself to be easy. Then I saw the slider up."
Pressly hung what Statcast posted as a curveball. Either way, it spun into Meadows' happy zone and he launched it deep into the right-field seats.
"He's handled all of this so well," Hinch said. "From his call-up to blending in with a bunch of guys he knows well to contributing every single game. This was a terrible matchup for him tonight (left-on-left with Valdez) and he hung in and got a couple of walks. It's been a picture-perfect week for him."
Meadows finally got out to the field and got that long-awaited hug from his mother.
"It's great that she's here," he said. "I have two of my best friends here and my grandmother, me-maw. It's really cool to do this in front of them."
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
X: @cmccosky
