Miguel Cabrera on Sunday became just the second player to hit a home run into the Rays Touch Tank at Tropicana Field.
The Detroit Tigers slugger took a breaking ball from Tampa Bay starter Jeremy Hellickson to deep right-center field in the fourth inning Sunday, and the ball made a splash landing in the middle of the 10,000-gallon tank. The only other player to make a splash hit into the rays tank was Luis Gonzalez in 2007.
The home run by Cabrera — his 25th of the season — accounted for the only Tigers run in a 3-1 loss. Cabrera continues to lead the AL in two of the three triple crown categories, and remains six home runs behind Chris Davis, who also homered on Sunday.
The Tigers also settled a score with the Rays by hitting Ben Zobrist in the first inning. They felt that was payback for Rays reliever Fernando Rodney throwing at Cabrera’s head the previous night. The Rays did not retaliate.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Jose Alvarez did not allow a hit until the fifth inning against the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, at which point Ryan Raburn spoiled the party. Raburn’s solo home run was the first hit of the day for Cleveland, and one of his former teammates was not pleased about it.
As Raburn was rounding third during his home run trot, Miguel Cabrera chucked his gum at the outfielder. In any other situation, the runner may have charged at the gum-thrower. Since Miggy and Raburn played together in Detroit from 2008-2012, Raburn simply smirked and kept on going.
That Miggy sure does love screwing with his opponents.
Miguel Cabrera and Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Roberto Hernandez had a bit of fun with each other during the Detroit Tigers’ 5-2 win on Thursday.
Hernandez (FKA Fausto Carmona) allowed Cabrera to go 2-for-3 when they faced each other, but it was the one time he got Miggy out that led to the fun.
To set the scene, you have to understand the pitch sequence for Cabrera’s first at-bat.
Cabrera singled in his first at-bat against Hernandez after going to the opposite field on a two-strike changeup away. Hernandez started off Cabrera with two hard sinkers inside and then went to junk after that, which proved to be a bad decision. In the next at-bat, Hernandez wisely went right back to the sinker and struck out Cabrera.
Hernandez threw Miggy four straight 90+ mph inside sinkers. Then, on the 2-2 pitch, he fooled Cabrera by throwing an 84 mph changeup. Miggy could be seen smiling as he walked away from the dish, probably because it’s not often that he gets fooled. Hernandez was also smiling knowing that he got over on Miggy in that at-bat:
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Miguel Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. You already knew that. He has no weakness in his swing, he doesn’t slump, and he can hit almost any kind of pitch. And he can hit those pitches with power.
You may remember last month when an awesome Yu Darvish GIF made its way onto the Internet. The GIF showed Darvish throwing six pitches and where those pitches traveled in the strike zone. The GIF was mesmerizing.
The creator of the GIF, Drew Sheppard, is back at it again.
Writing for Fangraphs, Sheppard put together a GIF and images that show Cabrera homering on pitches in all different parts of the strike zone. Here’s his explanation of the GIF:
The footage has been synchronized to the time of contact and stabilized at home plate to represent the end location of each pitch as accurately as possible. The pitches are taken from the last year, with the furthest off the plate over nine inches inside.
In, out, down, up, Miggy can homer on any pitch.
Sheppard has more images and a description at Fangraphs, so check those out for more.
Miguel Cabrera is in search of another Triple Crown with the Detroit Tigers this year, and he certainly doesn’t need any help from his opponents along the way. Cabrera has hit five home runs in his last three games and has 13 on the season. Had it not been for a little assistance from Cleveland Indians center fielder Michael Bourn, his total would be sitting at 12.
Cabrera hit a fly ball to deep center field in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s 11-7 win that looked like it was playable for Bourn. Instead, it bounced off his glove and popped over the fence for a two-run homer that padded Detroit’s lead.
We know one Philadelphia Phillies outfielder who knows exactly how Bourn feels, but at least his flub came during spring training. Handing a home run to one of the best players in the league during the regular season has to sting a bit.
Miguel Cabrera continued his reign of dominance over MLB pitching with a 3-home-run game in an 11-8 loss to the Texas Rangers on Sunday night.
Cabrera went 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored and 5 RBIs in the game. He started off with a line-drive single in the top of the first for Detroit’s lone hit of the inning. Two innings later, he followed hits from Omar Infante and Torii Hunter with a prodigious 3-run home run to right-center off Derek Holland:
Clear your eyes for a second and comprehend what you just saw. Miggy took an 83-mph change-up from lefty Derek Holland and sent it 441 feet to the opposite field. A 441-foot opposite field home run off a change-up from a lefty. Seriously. Do you realize how insane that is? Not only is a pitch like that intended to keep a hitter off balance or induce them to ground out weakly to the right side, but it requires a lot of power from the batter to deposit an 83-mph pitch 441 feet.
After getting burned with a change-up to Cabrera, Holland figured he’d bring the heat in the next at-bat to see how it would go. He brought in a 94-mph fastball, and Cabrera sent out a line drive to straight away center that left the park in about half a second:
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Does anyone have a more wicked pitching arsenal than Yu Darvish? The Texas Rangers stud pitcher matched up with Justin Verlander on Thursday in a game that surprisingly turned into a slugfest. While Verlander was rocked and couldn’t make it through three innings, Darvish got through eight to pick up his seventh win of the season.
But there was one moment in particular that must be recognized: the time when Darvish made Miguel Cabrera look foolish.
Darvish was facing Cabrera in the top of the fifth with the Rangers up 8-4 and the count 0-1. Darvish threw Cabrera a 62 mph curveball, and Miggy took a vicious hack at it. He was so off balance after missing on the swing that he stumbled across the plate and was left to give a smile. Why? Because nobody makes him look foolish like that.
Cabrera is the reigning AL MVP and last year’s triple crown winner. He’s the best hitter in baseball. That doesn’t happen very often. But with Darvish pitching, anything is possible.
Also see: Amazing GIF shows all of Darvish’s pitches
GIF via Drew Sheppard
There are some players who don’t need a month of practice games to get prepared for the season. Miguel Cabrera is one of those guys.
The Detroit Tigers stud turned on a 1-2 fastball from Jonathan Papelbon during the top of the 5th inning Monday against the Phillies for a 3-run home run. Papelbon left the fastball up and it ran in on Cabrera, who didn’t even take a stride and just mashed it with his fast hands.
The ball cleared the bullpens beyond left field at Bright House Field in Clearwater and went over one of the food huts. Miggy already has two home runs this spring and continues to show why he’s the best hitter in baseball. This was Papelbon’s first work of the spring, so he has plenty of time to get himself ready.
Four months ago, Detroit Tigers reliever Octavio Dotel called out teammate Miguel Cabrera for not speaking to the media after a loss in the playoffs. In Dotel’s opinion, Cabrera should be one of Detroit’s leaders since he is the team’s best player. On Tuesday, the topic was revisited.
In a story written by Eric Aldeson of Yahoo! Sports, Dotel was quoted as basically calling Cabrera selfish.
“You have to step up and say something,” Dotel told Yahoo! Sports. “Miggy’s more about his game. I don’t see him as a leader.”
The 39-year-old Dotel went on to explain how he feels the slugger should take on more of a leadership role seeing as how everyone “has their eyes on Miggy Cabrera.” Cabrera apparently did not appreciate the criticism, and Dotel felt the need to apologize for his comments on Wednesday.
“I don’t mean to make people think that he’s not the guy,” Dotel said, via MLive.com’s Chris Iott. “He’s our guy. He’s our horse. He’s our man. If we don’t have Miggy, hello, where are we going to be? I don’t know where we’re going to be.”
Cabrera had very little to say about the situation, but he made it clear that it did indeed bother him.
“If he’s saying that — wow — what do you want (me) to say,” the Triple Crown winner said. “That’s his opinion.”
Cabrera later told reporters that he is “good” with Dotel and has nothing to say, and Dotel gave the following response when asked if he was upset about the situation.
“Yes, big time,” he said. “Because that’s not what I was trying to mean. And I’m sorry that Miggy thinks the way he thinks. I feel bad. I apologized to him and everyone here about that leader comment.”
It’s certainly possible that Dotel’s comments didn’t come out the way he wanted them to, but the fact that he said something similar during the playoffs last year makes it a reoccurring theme. The best player on the team is not always a leader — just ask someone like Manny Ramirez. Dotel is certainly entitled to his opinion, but it’s probably time for him to accept that speaking to members of the media about it only creates drama.
Photo credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE
Detroit Tigers third baseman/DH Miguel Cabrera received an awesome crown trophy from MLB for winning the Triple Crown in the American League during the 2012 season. The trophy is an actual crown, and it features a Detroit Tigers “D” on the front, golden baseball on the top, and is lined with purple cloth.
The front of Cabrera’s trophy says: “2012 American League Triple Crown presented by Major League Baseball to Miguel Cabrera.”
Cabrera was presented with the trophy prior to Game 3 of the World Series in Detroit. Commissioner Bud Selig and former Triple Crown winner Frank Robinson presented him with the award. He also won the Hank Aaron Award for Most Outstanding Player in the American League, while Giants catcher Buster Posey received the honor for the National League.
“I want to congratulate Miguel on his magnificent year and winning the Triple Crown,” Selig said, via MLB.com. “Hard to believe it was 45 years since Carl Yastrzemski won it, and the year before our friend Frank Robinson. So it’s a really momentous year.”
The back is further customized to reflect Cabrera’s statistics:
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