DETROIT — Miguel Cabrera stepped to the plate with two on and two outs in the second inning Tuesday night against Guardians starter Cal Quantrill and did his trademark stare back to the field. Not long ago, this was one of the scariest situations a pitcher could face: An RBI situation against an All-Star capable of hitting the ball out to any part of a stadium, even at spacious Comerica Park.
The situation is still frightening for a pitcher nowadays, but for different reasons. Instead of a slugger staring down his opponent, Cabrera at age 39 is more like a chess player surveying his board. He checks the defense, searching for an opening the infield has left or a spot the outfield can’t reach, and goes to work.
“Miggy knows what his strengths are,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said after the Tigers’ 11-4 win. “He knows how to put together an at-bat.”
On a basic level, that seems obvious. Cabrera is in the 3,000-hit and 500-homer clubs for a reason. But with the spotlight of those milestones gone, his focus and competitiveness are just as strong. If anything, clearing the milestones has allowed Cabrera to simply concentrate on hitting again, and use his toolbox for whatever situation confronts him.
“He’s so intelligent, and he uses the whole field,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He was a monster before. He’s played a lot of baseball, but he’s so intelligent that he’ll take a line drive to right field when you need him. It’s hard to combat that when you’ve got a guy who uses the whole field; we’ve seen it with us.”
Cabrera already knew how to torment Cal Quantrill; he went 3-for-6 off the Cleveland starter last season with a pair of opposite-field singles and a ground ball through the middle. Tuesday showed another year of age didn’t change the result.
In the first inning, Cabrera watched two sinkers down and in to get a 2-0 count, forcing Quantrill to come back up into the zone. When Quantrill tried to jam him, Cabrera flared it out to right field.
That seemed to be on Quantrill’s mind an inning later, when he tried to attack with cutters. Cabrera fouled off the first, then flared the second into nearly the same location as the other single. This time, he drove in a run and advanced another, part of a four-run inning that put the Tigers in front for good.
Quantrill changed course with two outs and the bases empty in the fourth, going to the outer half of the zone with a first-pitch sinker before getting Cabrera to swing at…
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