Miguel Cabrera's biggest games: 5 days that marked his climb to MLB history
For the first time in his career, Miguel Cabrera was coming off a serious injury, having missed the final 94 games of the Detroit Tigers’ 2018 season with a left biceps injury. That season was also the first of an officially acknowledged rebuild — no more October hopes — as the losses of Justin Verlander (to trade) in August 2017 and Cabrera (to injury) sent the Tigers to back-to-back 98-loss seasons — their worst finishes since the 119-loss campaign of 2003.
No longer was Cabrera the perennial MVP candidate surrounded by talent at every position. With the Tigers going young on the field, and adding noted “teaching manager” Ron Gardenhire to the dugout, Cabrera was suddenly the elder statesman, expected to teach his teammates “the Tiger way” while continuing to make progress toward his career milestones.
That alone wouldn’t be easy, as the aches and pains of a 162-game schedule turned into chronic ailments for Cabrera to manage and play through. Over his final five seasons, he played in 80% of the Tigers’ games just three times. (Though the 2020 coronavirus pandemic likely helped with that; Cabrera played just 57 games, but the Tigers played just 58 in a season that didn’t start until late July.)
Despite the doom and gloom — Cabrera’s slash line of .261/.323/.369 over 528 games from 2019-23 resembled that of a failed prospect, and not a superstar on a mega-contract — there were flashes of hope. The sudden resignation of Gardenhire at the end of 2020, the hiring of manager A.J. Hinch and the Tigers’ ensuing 77-85 record in 2021 planted the seeds of hope.
So, too, did Cabrera’s milestone chase, as he drew ever closer to 500 homers, 600 doubles and 3,000 hits in what became an extended farewell tour around the majors. Here, then, are Cabrera’s greatest games from 2019-23:
April 26, 2019: South Side blues
White Sox 12, Tigers 11: If only Miggy could pitch. Cabrera recovered from his first game without a hit in nearly two weeks — an 0-for-4 night in Boston — with a 4-for-6 run with three RBIs in the series opener on Chicago’s South Side. Three of those hits came in the first four innings, as Cabrera was a triple short of the cycle before the game was even half over, thanks to a generous 15 mph wind blowing out.
Cabrera opened his Friday night by lofting a four-seam fastball at his knees just over the fence in the right-field corner for a solo homer, then picked up another RBI on a ground-ball single up the middle off a changeup. With the other Tigers also plowing through lefty Carlos Rodón’s repertoire, Cabrera came up again in the fourth and launched another low fastball the other way for an RBI double, this time just short of clearing the wall in the right-field corner. That was it for Rodón, but not for Cabrera; after a strikeout in the fifth, Miggy came up with two outs and one one. He pulled the low second-pitch sinker to third, beating the throw for his first four-hit game in almost a year exactly, when he went 4-for-6 on April 25, 2018.
That was his final success of the nigt, however. At the plate again with a runner on in the top of the ninth and the game suddenly tied — the White Sox had recovered from an 8-2 deficit to take an 11-10 lead before the Tigers knotted it in the eighth — Cabrera swung at the first pitch he saw, another delivery well below the zone. This time, however, it bounced to shortstop Tim Anderson, who started a 6-4-3 double play to send the game to the bottom of the ninth … where Anderson walked it off with two outs on a first-pitch solo homer of his own.
Sept. 23, 2020: On Target in Minneapolis
Twins 7, Tigers 6: Only two players in franchise history — Cecil Fielder (6) and Charlie Gehringer (7) —have more six-RBI games than Cabrera’s five. The final one of his career came on a warm Wednesday in Minneapolis as a slow-starting Miggy wound up mashing two homers, each a three-run shot, to nearly will the Tigers to a rally all on his own.
After grounding out to short in the first and to the pitcher in the fourth, Cabrera strode to the plate with the Tigers down six in the sixth, but with one out and two on. He crushed the second pitch of the at-bat, an 83.9 mph slider from Kenta Maeda, 438 feet into the Tigers’ bullpen just left of dead center to cut the deficit in half. Not only was the homer the 485th of his career, it also served as his 1,454th career run scored — the most among Venezuelan-born players (passing Bobby Abreu).
After the Twins added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning, and Cabrera lined out in the eighth, he returned to the plate in the top of the ninth with two outs and two on. This time, he jumped on the third pitch of the at-bat, a low, slow slider from Sergio Romo, and delivered it into the left-field stands, 413 feet from home. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they couldn’t send Cabrera to the plate again, as Jeimer Candelario grounded out to end the game.
Teammate Isaac Paredes, who was 4 when Cabrera made his MLB debut, paid tribute to his veteran teammate after scoring on both his homers, telling reporters: “We know what kind of hitter he is, and I’m really happy that I was able to be on base when he hit the homers,” Paredes said through translator Carlos Guillen. “Happy for him, and also happy for him to help us get closer on the scoreboard.”
May 12, 2021: Venezuela’s favorite son
Tigers 4, Royals 2: The two homers against the Twins brought Cabrera within 17 hits of passing former teammate Omar Vizquel for the most hits by a Venezuelan-born player. But he finished the 2020 season with five more hits, pushing the chase to 2021 — when it was delayed by an injured list stint that cost him two weeks in May. Finally, in Detroit, Cabrera neared his country’s record.
A third-inning single pulled to left off lefty Danny Duffy tied Cabrera with Vizquel. With one out and a runner on second in the fifth, Cabrera wasted little time claiming the mark for himself; he sent Duffy’s down-and-away changeup skipping through the infield the opposite way to give the Tigers their final run at Comerica Park.
The hit still left Cabrera 122 shy of his ultimate goal — 3,000 — but he was able to see things through his countrymen’s eyes, too: “Right now, I feel relieved,” he told reporters. “Many people have been talking to me this offseason, the past year and today about passing this record. I kept that in my head, so I’m a little relieved. I don’t have to worry about that.”
Aug. 22, 2021: Welcome to the 500 Club!
Tigers 5, Blue Jays 3: Of course, there was another milestone Cabrera was climbing toward: 500 home runs. He got to No. 499 on Aug. 11 in Baltimore, sat out the next game on the road, then went homerless over his next 11 games, including the Tigers’ first two games in Toronto. But against left-hander Steven Matz, Cabrera finally connected with history, becoming the 28th player in MLB history with 500 homers.
Cabrera’s historic shot came with one out in the sixth inning, following his first-inning foul pop and a fourth-inning groundout to short. On the third pitch from Matz, a far-outside changeup, Cabrera went the other way with a vengeance, sending the ball out with a 104.1 mph exit velocity, 400 feet into the Tigers’ bullpen. At home, it would have been a long out. But in Toronto, it was history: “When I hit it, I say, 'Come on, get up, get up,' something like that,” Cabrera told reporters. “But I play at Comerica, so every fly ball to that part is out. I'm glad I hit that fly ball here, because if I hit it at Comerica Park, it's going to be two outs.”
Cabrera’s teammates celebrated as much as he did; Jeimer Candelario, who was on deck behind Cabrera — and just 9 when Cabrera hit his first homer in South Florida — rejoiced after the game: “When he hit that ball, I know something special was about to happen. History was about to happen. For me, being a part of that is a blessing.”
April 23, 2022: 3,000, at last ...
Tigers 13, Rockies 0: That left just one major milestone for Cabrera to reach: 3,000 hits. He finished the 2021 season with 2,987 hits, setting himself up for a quick sprint to more history. Three hits on April 20 against the New York Yankees seemed to set it up for the next game, but the Yankees — who capped an 0-for-3 performance by Cabrera with an intentional walk in his final plate appearance on April 21 — and the weather — which turned a Friday night series opener against the Colorado Rockies into a Saturday doubleheader — had other ideas. Finally, on a sunny afternoon at Comerica Park, Cabrera stepped to the plate with one on and one out against countryman Antonio Senzatela in front of 37,566 screaming fans.
Senzatela opened with a four-seam fastball down and away, and Cabrera fouled it off. The next pitch, another four-seamer, was even farther outside, and Cabrera laid off to even the count. On pitch No. 3, however, Senzatela came inside with another four-seamer and Cabera jumped on it, sending a grounder the opposite way through the hole at second base to make history — the first Venezuelan to 3,000 hits, and the seventh MLB player with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. All in front of his adopted hometown.
“I was really nervous,” Cabrera told reporters afterward. “This one was really special for me because I wanted to do it here for my fans in my hometown here in Detroit.” He went on to add another single in the game, then picked up a third hit on the day in Game 2 of the doubleheader, putting him at 3,002 for his career.
Cabrera tacked on another 86 hits and five homers to his totals in 2022, then had something of a renaissance at age 40: After opening with a .196 average and no homers over the first two months of 2023, Cabrera posted a .276/.331/.373 slash line over the next four months to go into the final two games of his career with 511 home runs, 626 doubles and 3,173 hits — one of just three MLB players in the 500/600/3,000 club, along with Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Miguel Cabrera's biggest games: 5 days from his chase of MLB history
