On a somber evening in Detroit, the Tigers took on the Minnesota Twins in game two of a four-game series. The day started with sad news of the passing of 1968 World Champion and longtime radio color man Jim Price.
At 81 years old, Price was beloved by Tigers fans of all generations for his contributions to the organization on and off the field. All of us here at Bless You Boys will miss him. Tuesday evening, the Tigers played one of their best all-around games of the season by shutting out the division-leading Twins. 6-0.
Riley Greene has been slumping as of late but broke out with a hustle double in the first inning to give the Tigers an early scoring chance. With two outs Miguel Cabrera, batting for the first time all season in the cleanup spot, sent a ground ball to Jorge Polanco at second base. Being the speed demon that he is, Miggy caused a rushed throw from Polanco that took Donavan Solano off the bag at first allowing Greene to come around to score. It wasn’t a classic Miguel Cabrera at bat from the cleanup spot, but he got the run home as he has countless times throughout his illustrious career.
Tigers’ defense looked really good to start the game, with a superb play from Nick Maton to end the top half of the first, and a sparkling catch from Javier Báez to rob the Twins of a run in the third.
In the fourth inning, Miggy led off with an easy single served into right field. That hit was the 3,141st of his career, tying him with Tony Gwynn for 21st on the all-time hit list. Kerry Carpenter followed him up with a double roped to right field to get the Tigers in business, and then Báez kept the line moving by driving in Miggy with a single to center. Zack McKinstry got in on the action with a single up the middle of his own to put the Tigers up 3-0.
Eduardo Rodriguez took the mound in Detroit for the first time since the MLB trade deadline and showed the Tiger faithful why it might be nice to have him around for a few more years. While not overpowering, the veteran located his fastball well and kept the Twins off balance for seven innings of shut-out baseball.
In the seventh inning, Jake Rogers tacked onto the Tigers’ lead with a solo shot to deep left-center field. Rogers now has 14 home runs on the season and a wRC+ over 100. The batting average and on-base percentage are low, but when Jake makes contact, he makes it count. Among American League catchers, Rogers ranks fifth in fWAR.
In the eighth inning, Miguel Cabrera came to the plate for his fourth at-bat of the night. After being backed off the plate by a curveball from Josh Winder, Miggy flipped a slider back up the middle for his second hit of the evening, and the 3,142nd of his career, tying him with Robin Yount for 20th all-time. As Jim Price routinely called him, “the big man,” was lifted for a pinch runner in Eric Haase to thunderous applause from the crowd.
The Tigers weren’t done there though, as they loaded the bases with two outs for Zack Short. Short, who had just entered the game in the top half of the inning as a defensive replacement for Nick Maton, ripped a single to the gap in left-center field to put the Tigers up 6-0.
With Alex Lange seemingly relegated to mop-up duty while he works through his command issues, both Jose Cisnero and Jason Foley were bumped up in the pecking order. Cisnero toed the rubber in the eighth and pitched around a one-out double with two strikeouts. Foley came on in the ninth to protect the six-run lead and pitched around a leadoff double to seal the victory.