Like many Tigers, Parker Meadows has happily cancelled plans for October. He's bailed on weddings and bachelor parties. His own bachelor party is scheduled for the end of this month in Florida, "and I want to miss it," he said with a smile.
"This is cooler, for sure," he said.
The air is cooler in Detroit, and the Tigers are still playing. Their 24-year-old rookie centerfielder is one of the biggest reasons why. As Matt Vierling put it after the Tigers blanked Cleveland for the second straight game to take a 2-1 lead in the ALDS, "I don't know if we're here without that guy." Meadows was the match on the fire once again Wednesday, smoking a single to lead off the first and racing around to score and later making a running catch in center that kept the Guardians off the board. His feet often bring the fans to theirs.
They cheered lustily for Meadows when he was introduced before the first playoff game at Comerica Park in a decade, as loudly as they did for anyone not named Tarik Skubal. Over the Tigers' staggering run that began in August, Meadows has been arguably their most valuable position player. His defense always spoke for itself. Now his bat is perking up, and the Tigers are making noise.
"He's an incredible outfielder," said Vierling. "Ever since I started playing with him last spring training, I could see that. And obviously his hitting has come along really well. He looks comfortable and he sets the tone at the top of the lineup. Even when we're facing a lefty and he's in there toward the middle or the bottom of the lineup, it's still like, 'Alright, great, Parker's coming up.'"
A few months ago, Meadows was heading down. His brutal start at the plate, headlined by a .096 average through his first 32 games, forced the Tigers to send him to Toledo in early May. He forged his way back to the big leagues in July, only for a hamstring injury to cost him another month. He returned in August with a game-tying triple and the walk-off run in a stirring win over the Royals, and a few days later the fire was lit.
By now, you know the stat. It's still hard to fathom. The Tigers are 58-29 this season when Meadows plays, which equals a 108-win pace. They are 32-48 when he doesn't, a 64-win pace. He just became the second Tiger ever to hit safely in his first five postseason games, joining a man known as Mr. Tiger in 1968: Al Kaline. (Kaline did it in Year 16 of his Hall of Fame career, when the postseason consisted of the best team from each league playing in the World Series.)
"That's pretty cool, pretty cool," Meadows said in typically casual fashion. "Big name. Just trying to get something started there early. And shoutout to the pitching, shut them down pretty good, that was fun to play defense behind."
The pitching would like to shout out Meadows. Is there anything he can't catch? In the eighth inning of a scoreless stalemate in Game 2 in Cleveland, Meadows leapt at the left-center field wall to take extra bases away from Kyle Manzardo and spare Will Vest. In the fifth inning of Game 3, runners on first and second and the Tigers protecting a 2-0 lead, Jose Ramirez ripped a line drive into right center off Beau Brieske. Meadows chased it down to end the threat.
"That's a tough play for a lot of centerfielders," said Vierling, who's played the position himself, "and he made it look so easy. It's like, every day he could do something that will just wow you."
Vest likes to call Meadows "a deer" in center, the way he strides across the outfield. Brieske called him "a gazelle," then admitted, "We don't even know what to call him. A 6'5 centerfielder who's the fastest player on the field? That's all you could ask for." Brieske said that when a ball is hit to center with two outs "and I know that it's probably not a home run, you start walking to the dugout. Or even if you think it might be a home run, it might get robbed."
Colt Keith watched the liner by Ramirez rocket over his head at second and thought it "had a chance to get down -- but obviously not. It was 100 percent gonna get caught by him."
"He's just gliding out there," said Keith.
Meadows' defense starts with getting good jumps on the ball, which is aided by the Tigers' smart outfield positioning under bench coach George Lombard. His speed and length take over from there. Asked if he thought he had the ball off Ramirez's bat, he smiled and said, "Yeah, I mean, I try to think that about most balls. Obviously there's some that I can't get to, but the mindset is always going to be, catch everything."
Five years ago, Jim Leyland was in Spring Training with the Tigers discussing some of their prospects. It was a low point for the franchise, which was about to lose 114 games in the middle of a messy rebuild. Leyland said he liked "the kid Meadows that we took in the second round last year. I went over to see him in TigerTown the other day, he’s a specimen. He’s a big kid, he’s graceful, he kind of lopes after the ball. He’s really got some ability." It's shining now in Detroit.
The Tigers weren't supposed to be here two months ago today. They've only been the best team in baseball since. Meadows has played like a star since returning to Detroit, with cool catches and clutch hits, including a homer in the Tigers' series-clinching win over the Astros in the wild card round. He hit .296 to close the season. He says he still gets "nervous before every game," but he sure doesn't look it.
"Just being able to control my breathing and stay calm, I think that's when I play my best," he said. "This city has been great to me, great to the team, even though we've had some ups and downs."
Wednesday was a snapshot of the Meadows Effect. The box score will say he went 1-for-4 with a run scored. It won't say he sparked the Tigers with his bat and base-running in the first or that he bailed them out with his glove in the fifth. It will fail to capture that "he impacts our team in so many great ways," said Vierling.
"I can't say enough about him, just with how much he's been through this year, going down, coming back up, it's been a huge year for him," Vierling said.
Meadows got engaged last December, and is getting married in January. The World Series starts the last weekend of October. His bachelor party might have to wait.