Miggy follows pregame honors with signature outing at Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK -- With the final month of Miguel Cabrera's retirement tour in full swing, the Tigers have watched and re-watched some of the biggest highlights from their veteran slugger’s 21-year Major League career, as teams across the league honor one of the game’s greats.

One of those moments came on Aug. 9, 2013, when Cabrera launched a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning off Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera at Yankee Stadium. In the midst of back-to-back American League MVP Award-winning seasons, Cabrera fouled two consecutive pitches off his leg while in an 0-2 count before connecting on a 2-2 cutter and sending it over the center-field fence.

It came in a losing effort, as Brett Gardner and the Yankees walked it off in the 10th, but that blast -- the first of two Cabrera hit off Rivera in consecutive at-bats two days apart -- is remembered as one of the most prominent homers of the now-40-year-old’s career.

On Tuesday evening, the Yankees presented Cabrera with a custom painting of that home run, along with a Yankee Stadium subway sign autographed by the team and a $10,000 check to the Miguel Cabrera Foundation in a pregame ceremony. A few hours later, Cabrera showed that he still has some highlights left in him.

With AL Cy Young Award frontrunner Gerrit Cole having kept the Tigers off the board through five innings, Cabrera stepped up to the plate with Kerry Carpenter stationed at third base after a leadoff triple. Cabrera turned on an inside 96.7 mph fastball and lined it to the opposite field to tie the game.

Though the Tigers went on to take a 5-1 loss in the series opener after Giancarlo Stanton’s 400th career home run, that RBI single was a glimpse of the player Cabrera has been during his 16-year tenure with Detroit.

“It didn’t surprise me with Miguel,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who was still an active Major Leaguer when Cabrera debuted in 2003 and who coached against him during his five-year tenure leading the Astros. “Miguel always seems to put up good at-bats with guys in scoring position. So, advantage us.”

Cabrera headed for the dugout after that hit, replaced by pinch-runner Tyler Nevin with a chance for the Tigers to break through with nobody out in the sixth. The smattering of visiting fans in attendance rose to their feet and applauded the slugger, whose job was already done.

Detroit wasn’t able to capitalize, however, as Andre Lipcius hit a foul popup and Parker Meadows and Javier Báez struck out to end the frame.

“Miggy’s incredible,” said catcher Jake Rogers. “He’s doing it. He’s hitting balls hard, too. It’s not like he’s going out there and hitting balls soft. He’s doing it like he’s always done it. It’s pretty impressive.”

That allowed Cole to finish his outing with six innings of one-run ball and seven strikeouts, good for his 13th win of the season -- and second consecutive against the Tigers, whom he also beat during last week’s four-game series at Comerica Park.

“He did a really nice job today,” said Cabrera, who has hit safely in six of his past seven games, including a four-hit showing on Saturday. “I was in a good position there. I was trying to make good contact [and] drive in the run, so I was ready for anything.”

Stanton soon made the Tigers pay with his history-making, go-ahead two-run homer in the bottom half of the sixth.

No stranger to high-profile matchups, Cabrera remembers that decade-old at-bat against Rivera, the one now immortalized in a painting in his possession -- even if he doesn’t know where he’s going to put it yet.

“It was a great battle between us,” Cabrera said. “I was lucky to get to the pitch and hit a home run.”

Fellow Venezuela native Gleyber Torres presented Cabrera with the painting as the final surprise up the Yankees’ sleeve during the pregame festivities. Aaron Judge and Luis Severino gave him the subway sign, while New York manager Aaron Boone and bench coach Carlos Mendoza -- joined by a trio of Venezuelan youngsters (Oswald Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and Everson Pereira) who met their idol last week in Detroit -- took the field for the check donation.

With only three more cities remaining on Cabrera’s farewell tour, he’s taking it all in and going out the only way he knows how.

“I appreciate every stadium I go to. I appreciate everything they give to me,” Cabrera said. “ … I say thank you very much, because they do that for me. I appreciate it all.”