Miami — There was a World Baseball Classic atmosphere inside LoanDepot Park Saturday. Huge, animated crowd of 32,936 — the largest crowd here since April of 2017. There were drums, cowbells, whistles. There was dancing, chanting, singing, flags waving.
The energy was palpable. The noise deafening. None more so than when Miguel Cabrera stepped to the plate in the second inning. The ovation induced goosebumps and it persisted. So much so that home plate umpire Jansen Visconti stopped the pitch timer and let the moment simmer.
The roof almost came off when Cabrera finally got settled into the batter’s box and lashed a ground-rule double into the corner in right.
It was Venezuelan Heritage Day and this is what they came for, as much if not more than for the Tigers’ 5-0 win over the Miami Marlins.
“It was like playing in Maracay or Caracas,” Cabrera said with a laugh after the game. “It was nice.”
Before the game several Venezuelan-born legends were introduced, including Luis Sojo, Carlos Gonzalez, Omar Vizquel, Alex Gonzalez, Edgardo Alfonso and Dave Concepcion. Cabrera was introduced last and got a thunderous ovation.
He shook hands with the other players in the middle of the field but shared a long embrace with Concepcion, who he grew up idolizing as a kid. He talked about Concepcion on Friday.
“It was the perfect game,” Cabrera said. “We won. Went two-for-four. Got to see my hero. It’s going to be one of the special days of my career.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Marlins 0
The moment got even better for Cabrera when he was able to jog around the bases, scoring with Javier Báez on Akil Baddoo’s three-run, opposite-field home run off Marlins starter Johnny Cueto in that second inning.
“That was crazy,” Baddoo said of the atmosphere. “It just shows how great Miggy was in his career. With his family here and getting all that Venezuelan love, I was just breathing it in. It was pretty amazing.”
Riley Greene added a solo home run, also to left field off Cueto, in the sixth. And Zack Short, who had two doubles in two at-bats, plated the fifth run in the ninth.
“This was one of the most electric games I’ve been a part of,” Greene said. “It was awesome. It got me going.”
Tigers pitching made that stand up and put an end to the four-game losing streak.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch used right-hander Beau Brieske as an opener, and he pitched two scoreless innings. His four-seam fastball (97 mph) and two-seamer (96) both played up velocity-wise and he worked his change-up and slider off those two pitches.
Lefty Joey Wentz, recalled from Triple-A Toledo Saturday morning, impressively kept the Marlins off the scoreboard through the seventh.
He’d punched out 12 in his last start at Toledo and he carried that into this outing. He was dotting edges with his change-up, cutter and curveball off his 93-mph, four-seam fastball.
“It was great,” said Wentz, who went 4.2 innings, allowing four hits with six strikeouts. “Found out I was coming back up and you want to help your team. It feels good to be able to do it.”
Right-hander Jason Foley got the final out in the seventh on two pitches. He needed 25 pitches to get two outs in the eighth and he left with a runner at third and two outs.
Lefty Tyler Holton came in and struck out pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel on four pitches. And Alex Lange brought it home with a clean ninth.
“You need a lot of guys to pitch well when you make a decision to (deploy an opener),” Hinch said. “We can mix and match and try to find the right pockets for the right guys. But the pitchers have to do the work and put up the zeroes. And they did that.”
Hinch intimated that Wentz might be sticking around for at least another pass through the rotation.
“I think he controlled his emotions, he controlled his reactions to mistakes and I thought he used his pitches well,” Hinch said. “There was a lot of growth we’re seeing with him and we’re going to keep challenging him.”
Fittingly, Cabrera got a curtain call. He singled in his final at-bat in the ninth and left the field to a standing ovation and chants of “Miggy, Miggy, Miggy” as Jake Rogers came out to run for him.
“I’m enjoying this time,” he said. “I’m enjoying my last year in the big leagues. I put it in my mind to go out and have fun and try to do the best I can. There’s no pressure. I’m just really happy right now. We need to keep winning. We have a chance to win the series tomorrow.”
Twitter: @cmccosky