DETROIT -- Eight months after losing a playoff heartbreaker in Seattle, the Tigers found the late-inning magic they needed against the Mariners to help keep their season alive. Kevin McGonigle's two-run single with two outs in the ninth completed a four-run rally to lift Detroit to a 5-4 win Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park.
The Tigers faced a 4-1 deficit heading into the seventh-inning stretch, but rallied back beginning with a two-run triple from Wenceel Pérez in the bottom of the seventh. Gabe Speier retired the top of the Tigers' lineup in order to strand him there, but Zach McKinstry’s one-out walk in the ninth brought Pérez back to the plate against closer Andrés Muñoz. Pérez, too, walked, putting the go-ahead run on base.
Matt Vierling’s groundout moved both runners up for McGonigle, whose fourth-inning home run -- which delighted a young McGonigoggles-wearing fan named Cece -- was the Tigers’ lone run before the rally. This time, all he needed was a line drive just over the outstretched glove of Mariners second baseman Cole Young and into right field.
The comeback win clinched the Tigers’ first home series win since taking two of three from Texas at the start of May, and finished a 5-1 week for a Detroit club that had lost four in a row and fallen 16 games under .500 before sweeping the Rays at Tropicana Field from Monday-Wednesday.