Parker Meadows’ walk-off home run lifts Detroit Tigers over Houston Astros, 4-1

Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez completed seven hitless innings on 114 pitches. The high pitch count, a product of five walks, forced his departure, and when that happened, the Detroit Tigers finally found a hit.

Kerry Carpenter, one of the hottest hitters in baseball, entered as a pinch-hitter for a matchup with right-handed reliever Bryan Abreu. The left-handed hitter pulled a two-strike slider, located over the middle of the strike zone, into right field for a single with one out in the eighth inning.

The Tigers avoided being on the wrong side of a combined no-hitter in the eighth, and in the bottom of the ninth inning, Parker Meadows — in his fourth MLB game — crushed a towering walk-off three-run. The Tigers beat the Astros, 4-1, in front of 23,832 fans in the first of three games in the series at Comerica Park.

“I can’t put it into words,” Meadows said. “It does not feel real.”

Right-handed reliever Ryan Pressly, who entered with a 2.77 ERA in 55 games, couldn’t complete the combined one-hitter for the Astros. He struck out pinch-hitter Akil Baddoo and Riley Greene, but he also allowed two-out singles to Miguel Cabrera and pinch-hitter Zach McKinstry.

Cabrera ripped a two-strike slider up the middle for the Tigers’ second hit.

After McKinstry’s single, the Tigers replaced Cabrera, the designated hitter, with pinch-runner Carson Kelly, the backup catcher, at second base. Javier Báez delivered a broken-bat single on Pressly’s third-pitch slider to tie the game, 1-1.

“It was kind of surprising because he knew I was looking for a breaking ball,” Báez said. “He threw a slider, and I just got to it. It hit off the hands, but I finally got a hit.”

Meadows, a left-handed hitter, fell behind in the count when he took a first-pitch changeup for a strike. He then refused to swing at a changeup in the dirt and a slider up-and-away, putting him ahead in the count.

“I was sitting on a fastball, but he left the (curveball) up and took advantage of it,” Meadows said. “In that position, people tend to get overly aggressive and press a little bit, but I just kept reminding myself to be easy.”

In a 2-1 count, Meadows blasted Pressly’s fourth-pitch 83.3 mph curveball — hanging on the middle-inside part of the strike zone — for a walk-off three-run home run into the right-field seats.

It was the first homer of Meadows’ career.

“You can’t script it any better for the first week of his career in the big leagues,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who was ejected in the seventh inning. “He’s handled all of this so well, from his call-up to blending in with a bunch of guys that he knows well to contributing every single game.”

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Before Báez and Meadows

Just because the Tigers didn’t get a hit until the eighth inning didn’t mean there wasn’t any early action on the bases. The Tigers were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position before Báez’s ninth-inning single.

The second inning was a prime example of the misfortunes on offense.

“We couldn’t get him off the ground,” Hinch said of Valdez. “Twelve of the first 15 outs were on the ground. He continued after that, but I stopped tracking when I got ejected. Our at-bats were still pretty good, though.”

Jake Rogers and Greene reached safely with a hit-by-pitch and a walk, respectively. Cabrera, the third batter in the inning, was robbed of a three-run home run by right fielder Kyle Tucker.

Tucker reached into the flowers above the right-field wall to take away what would have been Cabrera’s third homer of the season and the 510th homer of his career.

The second inning continued with Zack Short grounding into a fielder’s choice, from third baseman Alex Bregman to catcher Martin Maldonado. Rogers was thrown out at home plate to keep the Tigers from scoring.

The Tigers also advanced a runner to third base in the third inning, thanks to Meadows’ leadoff walk. A sacrifice bunt advanced him to second base, and a groundout moved him up to third base. But Spencer Torkelson struck out swinging on a changeup below the strike zone to strand Meadows.

After another walk, Meadows was stranded at second base in the fifth inning.

Valdez tossed seven hitless innings with five walks and six strikeouts, throwing 64 of 114 pitches for strikes. He generated 16 whiffs on seven sinkers, six changeups and three curveballs.

More importantly, Valdez picked up 13 ground-ball outs.

“We made him work,” Hinch said. “The only reason he had to come out of the game is because the quality of at-bats that we had, but every ground ball seemed to be right at their infielders.”

The eighth-inning single from Carpenter off Abreu’s slider saved the Tigers from the history books, but it wasn’t enough to spark an immediate comeback. Torkelson grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Hinch ejected

Hinch emerged from the dugout after Valdez, deep into his no-hit bid, recorded a called-third strike on Báez for the second out in the seventh inning. He had plenty of words for home plate umpire Laz Díaz.

Hinch, who almost never argues balls and strikes, was frustrated about a pitch-clock violation that he thought should have been enforced on Valdez before the called-third strike.

Díaz ejected Hinch.

“I saw zero,” Hinch said of the pitch clock. “I saw it at zero, and he had moved, and then he picked up, and Javy gets frozen. Javy saw the zero, too. I think the pitch was a strike. I haven’t seen the video, but I didn’t need video to see the timer go.

“When I got out there, Laz said he felt the indication, but he felt like (Valdez) had started (throwing), and that’s what I disagree with. … I thought he cut it too close and broke the rule, which would have been (runners on) first and second. … At that time in the game, to make that mistake, I couldn’t tolerate it.”

The seventh inning ended when Meadows struck out swinging at Valdez’s changeup at the bottom of the strike zone. At that point, Valdez had his no-hitter intact with 114 pitches through seven innings.

Bench coach George Lombard took over for Hinch as the acting manager.

“I just thought somebody was going to call it,” Báez said. “The clock went to zero. I didn’t want to call time because it was close to the pitcher throwing the ball, but at the same time, I don’t want to strike out like that when I wasn’t ready. But it is what it is.”

Errors bite Tigers

The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the third inning.

The inning was a complete mess, beginning with Jose Abreu reaching safely on a throwing error by Short, the third baseman. A catcher interference error by Rogers allowed Jeremy Pena to reach safely. Maldonado advanced both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt for the first out.

The next batter, Jose Altuve, hit a weak ground ball between the pitcher’s mound and the third-base line. Short charged the ball, but the it bounced off his glove. All three runners were safe; Abreu scored for a 1-0 advantage.

Right-hander Matt Manning, who started for the Tigers, escaped further damage by inducing an inning-ending double play. In the fourth inning, Meadows robbed Yordan Alvarez of solo a home run to center field.

Short made another throwing error in the fifth inning, and Rogers made another catcher interference error in the ninth inning. The Tigers finished Friday’s series opener with four errors.

Manning exited his 13th start by walking to the dugout with assistant athletic trainer Christopher McDonald. He suffered an apparent injury after throwing a slider with one out in the seventh inning.

“He slipped on the pitch before on the mound,” Hinch said. “I don’t know if his spike caught or whatever, but his low back grabbed him a little bit. He was in the middle of that (Meadows) celebration, which is a good sign.”

Manning allowed one unearned run on one hit and zero walks with three strikeouts, throwing 54 of 80 pitches for strikes. The 25-year-old threw 35 four-seam fastballs (45%), 30 sliders (39%), 11 curveballs (14%) and one changeup (1%).

The Astros ended the game with one hit.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.