Miggy records a 4-hit game Tigers haven't seen in 79 years

CHICAGO -- Miguel Cabrera is a self-professed “baseball guy” who prides himself on knowing about the Hall of Fame hitters he has been passing on Major League Baseball’s career hit leaderboard. He is a friend of George Brett, whom he passed for 17th on the all-time hits list in Saturday’s 10-0 win over the White Sox.

“That's unbelievable when you pass Tony Gwynn and George Brett,” Cabrera said Saturday afternoon. “You see the numbers early in your career and you say, 'No way. That's impossible to catch them.'”

But he can be excused if he knows nothing about the last 40-year-old Tiger to have a four-hit game.

Chuck Hostetler was a Minor League journeyman from 1928 through 1937, then left organized baseball to take a factory job, according to his SABR biography. He kept playing at the semi-pro and work league levels, and when many Major Leaguers were drafted into military duty for World War II, Hostetler earned a tryout with the Tigers as a 40-year-old in 1944.

Hostetler not only made the 1944 Tigers roster, seven years after his last pro game, he just missed batting .300 for the season. And when the Tigers hosted the St. Louis Browns for a Sunday doubleheader on June 18, Hostetler -- 40 years, 270 days old -- knocked out four singles and scored three of Detroit’s seven runs.

Hostetler finished with 86 career hits, but he had that game, along with a 1945 World Series title. For 79 years, that stood as the only four-hit game by a player age 40 or older in Tigers history, at least according to research on baseball-reference. Then Miggy made another bit of history on Saturday.

“He can sense as well as probably anybody in baseball when a guy is vulnerable and has to throw a strike,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “And when he sticks to his plan, the results are good.”

The Tigers roughed up Mike Clevinger for eight runs on 12 hits in four innings on Saturday, and Cabrera was at the forefront. He saw four pitches in three at-bats and churned out a pair of two-out RBI hits. He added two more singles off reliever Luis Patiño, and added to his history of damage at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Cabrera entered the game tied with Brett with 3,154 hits. By evening’s end, Cabrera was within eight hits of good friend Adrián Beltré for 16th all-time, a mark he wasn’t even thinking about before the game.

When asked about Beltré, Cabrera said, “Oh, I don't know. Let me see. I hope I get hot.”

He’s simmering.

Cabrera had one of Detroit’s five consecutive two-out hits against Clevinger in the first. After Spencer Torkelson’s single extended the inning, Cabrera punished a first-pitch fastball over the plate and slashed an opposite-field line drive off the wall in the right-field corner for an RBI double.

Cabrera scored from second on Kerry Carpenter’s ensuing single, but he was waiting at the top of the dugout when Andre Lipcius broke the game open with a two-run homer, Lipcius’ first Major League hit. Cabrera, who famously homered for his first hit on June 20, 2003, greeted Lipcius with a bear hug in front of the dugout.

After flying out to center in the second inning, Cabrera produced another two-out RBI hit in the fourth, this time hitting a first-pitch slider through the middle.

Both hits were on the first pitch, as was Cabrera’s sixth-inning RBI single, a line drive to right-center off Patiño.

“My approach today was swing at first-pitch strikes, be aggressive in the count,” Cabrera said. “Last three or four games, I've been taking first-pitch strikes. In that position, I said I'm going to be aggressive and try to make contact.”

By contrast, Cabrera worked a 1-2 count against Patiño before sending a ground ball up the middle again. Shortstop Zach Remillard charged it but couldn’t make the play as Cabrera rumbled into first base and awaited a pinch-runner.

By then, a Chicago crowd that has historically booed him and relished in his outs was cheering him on. What began Friday as cheers from a group of Venezuelan fans in the crowd in the series opener had spread around the ballpark, including many in White Sox attire.

Cabrera’s 49th career four-hit game -- tied with Hank Aaron for 21st-most in MLB history -- was his first since Sept. 8, 2021, when he went 4-for-4 against the Pirates at PNC Park. Now, he’ll be also linked with Hostetler in a quirky bit of history.