Miguel Cabrera doubles, scores, adds RBI in Detroit Tigers' 8-0 win over Guardians

Miguel Cabrera scored the first run of the game.

The Detroit Tigers honored Cabrera with speeches and gifts in a pregame ceremony, and in the fourth inning, he delivered a gift of his own — a double into left field. The 40-year-old, in the penultimate game of his 21-year MLB career, then scored on Matt Vierling's triple.

The Tigers took down the Cleveland Guardians, 8-0, in the second of three games in the series, in front of a sellout crowd of 40,224 at Comerica Park. The final game of Cabrera's career, as well as the final game of the Tigers' 2023 season, is set for 3:10 p.m. Sunday.

BEFORE THE GAME: How Tigers honored Miguel Cabrera in pregame ceremony at Comerica Park

With Saturday's win, the Tigers (77-84) clinched second place in the American League Central for the first time since 2016. Detroit enters Sunday's season finale with a one-game lead over Cleveland, but the tiebreaker — head-to-head record — already belongs to the Tigers, 8-4.

Cabrera helped put the Tigers in second place in the fourth inning, when he pulled right-hander Triston McKenzie's slider at the bottom of the zone for a double into left.

One of the best right-handed hitters in baseball jogged around first base and pulled into second base standing up. He then tagged and sprinted to third base on Kerry Carpenter's flyout and scored on Vierling's triple to center for a 1-0 Tigers lead.

Cabrera finished 1-for-4 with one double and one sacrifice fly in his second-to-last game. He has three doubles in his past two games, and 627 doubles in his career, which spans 2,796 games.

He also has 3,174 hits in his career.

Cabrera flied out to center field in the eighth inning, his fifth and final plate appearance in Saturday's game. He received a standing ovation from the fans on his way back to the dugout.

Who needs a rotation?

The Tigers had a successful bullpen-only game.

Right-handed reliever Will Vest tossed a scoreless first inning, then righty reliever Miguel Díaz took over for the second and third innings. He worked around three singles — thanks to two strikeouts and an outfield assist from right fielder Kerry Carpenter — without allowing any runs.

SEASON OF GIVING: Every gift Miguel Cabrera received in his 2023 farewell tour of MLB cities

Righty reliever Beau Brieske protected the Tigers' 1-0 advantage by retiring all three batters he faced in the fifth inning, his second inning of work. He exited after two walks and one out in the sixth inning.

Tyler Holton, a left-handed reliever, cleaned up Brieske's mess by generating back-to-back ground-ball outs against Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio to end the sixth inning. Holton and right-handed reliever Alex Lange combined to complete the seventh inning.

Left-handed reliever Andrew Vasquez and right-handed reliever Brenan Hanifee tossed scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth.

Adding seven runs

Two runs in the sixth inning and five runs in the seventh inning pushed the Tigers to their eight-run victory.

A two-run triple from Akil Baddoo, following singles from Zach McKinstry and Andy Ibáñez, accounted for the runs in the sixth inning.

Cabrera's sacrifice fly in the seventh inning — his 1,881st RBI — pushed the Tigers' advantage to 4-0. He tagged a first-pitch fastball, located middle-middle, from right-hander James Karinchak to center field, scoring Parker Meadows easily.

The Tigers batted around in the seventh inning, from Meadows to Meadows, and scored five runs off Karinchak and right-hander Xzavion Curry for an 8-0 lead. After Cabrera's sacrifice fly, the next three batters worked walks to load the bases.

Ibáñez's single made it 6-0, and Carson Kelly's single made it 8-0.

Ibáñez finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs; Baddoo had three walks and one hit.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

Listen to our weekly Tigers show "Days of Roar" every Monday afternoon on demand at freep.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers lock up 2nd place in Central with 8-0 win vs. Cleveland