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Miguel Cabrera was a beast, but former Twins pitcher Glen Perkins mostly tamed him

john shipley, pioneer press
·2 min read

Glen Perkins made three American League All-Star Games during an 11-year career as a Twins pitcher, and three times saved more than 30 games in a season.

Perkins has another nice, less conspicuous brag tucked into his bag.

In 31 plate appearances against Miguel Cabrera, the left-hander from Stillwater surrendered only one home run, and in fact one RBI.

“He got me at the Metrodome, right-center,” the current Twins color man said Wednesday before a 12:10 p.m. start against the Detroit Tigers — likely the last time Cabrera plays at Target Field before he retires and, in five years, is inducted into Cooperstown.

Cabrera was penciled into the Tigers’ lineup as the designated hitter batting sixth. In the Twins’ 5-3 win Tuesday night, Cabrera hit a two-run home run off Bailey Ober in the second inning, a shot to the second deck in left-center that might be the final dinger of a Hall of Fame career. It was only his second home run all season.

“If I see him tomorrow, I’ll try to say something to him,” Ober said. “Just one of those pitches.”

Cabrera has hit 509 career home runs, tied with Gary Sheffield for 26th all time. Forty-seven of those were hit in 241 games against the Twins. Only Cleveland, 50 homers in 246 games, was victimized more.

Before Tuesday’s game, the Twins presented Cabrera with several parting gifts, including a sterling silver hockey stick and a personalized fishing hat. It was Perkins who presented Cabrera with a Twins check for $5,000 made out to Cabrera’s nonprofit the Miggy Foundation, which aims to “improve the quality of life of our communities through sports, education and better health.”

“I did pretty well against him as a reliever,” Perkins said.

After four up-and-down seasons as a starter, Perkins remade himself as a slider/fastball reliever and averaged 34 saves between 2013-15. While Perkins was doing that, Cabrera was hitting .337 with 87 homers, 322 RBIs, 227 walks and a .981 OPS.

But head to head, Perkins got the better of the two-time AL MVP who had just won the Triple Crown — the first since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. In those three seasons, Cabrera was 2 for 9 with a pair of walks against Perkins.

Not bad for a lefty throwing to one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time.

Perkins only faced two batters more than he faced Cabrera — Alex Rodriguez and Paul Konerko — and overall, Miggy was 7 for 25 with a homer, RBI and six walks. But in Perkins’ five seasons as a full-time reliever, Cabrera was 3 for 13 with three walks.

“I loved facing him,” Perkins said. “I loved it and I hated it, if that makes sense.”

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