For the fourth consecutive game, the Padres' starting pitcher did not make it past the third inning, as the Tigers jumped on Mark Thurmond for three runs in the first inning. Lou Whitaker singled to lead off, then Kirk Gibson homered an out later, followed by consecutive singles by Lance Parrish, Larry Herndon and Chet Lemon. The Padres got on the board in the third when Bobby Brown hit a leadoff single off of Dan Petry, moved to third on two groundouts and scored on Steve Garvey's single. The Padres rallied to tie the score in the fourth when with runners on second and third Brown's sacrifice fly and Alan Wiggins's RBI single scored a run each to knock Petry out of the game, but the Tigers loaded the bases in the fifth off of Andy Hawkins when Rusty Kuntz's sacrifice fly put them up 4–3. Parrish's home run in the seventh off of Rich Gossage made it 5–3 Tigers, but the Padres cut the lead back to one on Kurt Bevacqua's home run off closer Willie Hernández. Kirk Gibson came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth for the Tigers with runners on second and third and one out. Gibson had homered earlier in the game, and Padres manager Dick Williams strolled to the mound to talk to Goose Gossage, seemingly with the purpose of ordering him to walk Gibson intentionally. Just before the at-bat, Gibson made a US$10 bet (flashing ten fingers) with his manager Sparky Anderson that Gossage (who had dominated Gibson in the past) would pitch to him. Gossage talked Williams into letting him pitch to Gibson, and Gibson responded with a three-run blast into the upper deck to clinch the Series for the Tigers. Gibson wound up driving in five runs and scoring three, including the run that gave Detroit the lead for good when he raced home on a pop-up sacrifice fly by little-used reserve Rusty Kuntz.
In the ninth, Willie Hernández closed out the series for the Tigers by getting Tony Gwynn to fly to Larry Herndon in left field for the final out.
