Parker Meadows robs homer, Kerry Carpenter hits two in Tigers’ win

“That guy’s Superman,” the rookie third baseman said of his former Triple-A Toledo teammate. “He flies through the air.”

The way Meadows seems to defy gravity for a moment with each leap at an outfield fence, the superhero comparison is understandable. But his string of home run robberies this summer, now coast to coast, would rank him with some of the most legendary thieves. Think Danny Ocean with vertical leap.

“I appreciate the challenge, 100 percent,” Meadows said. “My job is to go and get every ball.”

And with Meadows’ latest trick — bringing back Colton Cowser’s drive to right-center field with a runner on in a 3-3 game in the fifth inning — the Tigers took a big step towards their greatest heist, a smash-and-grab job on the American League Wild Card race. Detroit’s win moved it a game over Minnesota, which was swept in a doubleheader at Boston, and tied with Kansas City for the second AL Wild Card berth. The Royals own the tiebreaker, having won the season series from the Tigers.

Meadows’ catch was the beginning of a three-pitch, two-inning sequence that essentially turned the game.

While a sellout crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards went silent, the Tigers went nuts, from Jung and Riley Greene waving their arms in the field to everyone reacting in the dugout. Sean Guenther, the 5-foot-11 lefty reliever whose pitch Cowser hit, gave the 6-foot-5 Meadows a hug. Jung, Meadows and others rewatched the play on one of the dugout iPads between innings.

“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Jung said.

Once Kerry Carpenter hit the second pitch of the next inning for a go-ahead homer, his second home run of the day, the Tigers had taken a game that was seemingly getting away from them — a 3-0 lead gone in one inning — and completely reversed the momentum the O’s had going.

“They could’ve taken a two-run lead, and then two minutes later, I end up hitting a homer and we’re up by one,” Carpenter said. “It changes the entire game. It’s special what [Meadows] does out there. It’s amazing.”

Said Jung: “We made a pitching change [after Jordan Westburg’s game-tying RBI double in the fifth], and I was like, ‘We just need one or two things to go our way and take the crowd out of it.’ That’s what you have to do on the road. That’s what Parker literally did. And then Kerry hits a homer, and it’s dead silent and we have the lead back and they can’t feed off of their crowd anymore.”

In that sense, there’s a factor in those catches on the road. Sunday’s catch looked eerily similar to Meadows’ leaping grab in Seattle on Aug. 7, which brought back a would-be go-ahead homer from Cal Raleigh. The Tigers pulled away after the catch for a win in that game, ensuring a series victory over the Mariners.

“I probably made it look a little tougher,” Meadows said of his latest feat. “I kind of hit the wall on the way up on the jump but was able to secure it.”

From his teammates’ viewpoint, they all look tough. And yet he makes them look simple.

“I thought it was close,” said Carpenter, who was playing in right field. “And it was kind of in the middle of us, so I was trying to track it, too. I was getting ready to jump at the wall, and then I saw him. He was locked on that thing, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll back him up.’

“He tends to come down with those more often than not. He’s so much fun to play with out there.”

Said Meadows: “It’s my job to do that. I knew he hit it high, and I knew I had to go and try to beat it to a spot. Carp did a good job letting me know where the wall was and backing off and allowing me to make the play.”

Both catches had plenty of loft, but Sunday’s grab had so much more riding on it, including a postseason berth that seemed unfathomable when Meadows made his leap in Seattle. Now, the Tigers’ first playoff berth since 2014 seems well within their grasp.

“We never really thought of it. We just kept winning games,” Carpenter said. “So that’s what we’ll keep doing now. Not going to grasp at anything or chase anything. We’re just going to go out there and play like we can play. When we do that, we play well. We have a bunch of guys here that can play baseball and win games in the big leagues, so it’s fun.”