3 moments that saved Tigers' season in Game 4 vs Mariners, 2 that almost doomed them

The Tigers' vibe was off going into Game 4 of the ALDS, with Detroit on the brink of elimination. They'd lost Game 3 by allowing eight runs to the Mariners and only started to wake up offensively in the bottom of the ninth. Everyone at Comerica was dealing with a certain amount of fear that they'd only come that day to see their team kicked out of the postseason.

But the Tigers weren't done yet, and they stormed back to force a Game 5 in Seattle. It wasn't perfect on Wednesday, but it was thrilling.

3 moments that saved Tigers' season in ALDS Game 4 vs Mariners

Jahmai Jones' pinch-hit for Parker Meadows

Going into Game 4, Meadows was 4-for-24 at the plate with seven strikeouts and single walk. When the Tigers were facing lefty Gabe Speier, the only right answer was putting in one of their lefty killers. Enter Jones, who kept the momentum going after Dillon Dingler brought in the first run of the game. Jones swung at the first pitch he saw and doubled to bring Dingler in, and Javy Báez followed it up with a single to tie the game.

Riley Greene's solo homer

Greene has been waiting for his big moment since the postseason started. He collected five hits during the Wild Card Series, but was still swinging at everything and striking out in big situations. He got two more in the ALDS opener but went cold in Games 2 and 3, and he grounded out in his first two at-bats of Game 4. After the Tigers closed the three-run gap in the fifth, Greene had the opportunity for the signature moment, and he took it. He crushed a 454-foot homer to put the Tigers on top.

Javy Báez's two-run homer

Greene's sixth-inning homer was just the first of four runs they would score in that inning. Zach McKinstry made up for a mental lapse on defense in Game 3 and singled to bring in Spencer Torkelson, Wenceel Pérez got himself on second with a double in his first at-bat of the game, and then Báez, who had already been part of that fifth-inning rally, made hitting a two-run homer look too easy. He's been the Tigers' unlikeliest, hottest hitter of the postseason, but that was the biggest moment Detroit could've asked for.

2 moments that doomed the Tigers season in ALDS Game 4 vs Mariners

Casey Mize being pulled after the third

Mize gave up one run in three innings, on an RBI single for Dominic Canzone, but he looked sharp enough for AJ Hinch to keep in the game for at least another inning. But with Canzone, a lefty, due up again against righty Mize in the fourth, Hinch pulled him and replaced him with lefty Tyler Holton, who gave up Seattle's second run of the game. Kyle Finnegan followed to give up run No. 3. If not for the offensive outburst, Hinch might've had to wait until next March to see his 1,000th career win.

Josh Naylor picking up on pitcher's tells

The Mariners were helped along in the second inning by some shenanigans from Naylor, who had made it to second on a double and was signaling to Eugenio Suárez throughout his at-bat (Suárez ended up striking out). Naylor was very obviously picking up on some tells — waving his arms, moving his hands, nodding in approval whenever Suárez took a pitch out of the zone — and he did it again when he got to second base in the fourth, which helped Mitch Garver walk to load the bases. Naylor would later score on a groundout. It was legal, but the behavior was so egregiously obvious.