One last big hit for Miggy at The K

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Kauffman Stadium hosted one of the greatest moments in Miguel Cabrera's career when he clinched the Triple Crown there at the end of the 2012 regular season. It also hosted a lot of his less momentous hits -- 138 of them to be exact, his second-highest hit total as a visitor at any park (he has 144 at Progressive Field), and one behind former Tigers teammate Victor Martinez for the most by a player who was never a Royal. Cabrera’s 94 RBIs in Kansas City are the most he has anywhere besides Miami and Detroit.

“A lot of hits,” Cabrera said with a laugh.

The crowds in Kansas City, in turn, have always treated him with class. His reception upon clinching the Triple Crown was like that of a home player. The Royals, led by Hall of Famer George Brett and fellow Venezeuelan great Salvador Perez, presented Cabrera with a framed photo collection from that night as a retirement gift during a pregame ceremony Wednesday. When Cabrera walked back to the dugout following a ninth-inning groundout that night, he received a standing ovation from fans sensing it would likely be his final at-bat there.

“I always want to say thank you for everything they do for me. They made my life better,” Cabrera said.

His final hit and RBI at The K will quietly go down as one of his more impressive, and a shining example why he has been such an effective hitter over the last couple months as a 40-year-old in his final season. With the go-ahead run on second base and two outs, Royals reliever Carlos Hernández -- also a native of Venezuela -- tried to blow fastballs by the slugger he grew up watching. Cabrera hunkered down and went to battle.

“Stay on the fastball. Swing at fastballs,” Cabrera said of his game plan. “If he throws offspeed, hopefully he can’t throw it in the zone. You know me, I don’t want to chase sliders in the dirt. I tried to stay right-center and tried to make good contact.”

Cabrera took a first-pitch fastball at 97.6 mph off the plate, then fouled off a 97.1 mph heater in the zone to even the count. He swung and missed on a 98.5 mph pitch in the middle of the plate for strike two, putting him right where Hernández wanted him.

Hernández tried to finish him off at 100 mph. Cabrera chased it off the plate but fouled it off. When Hernández went back over the plate with it, Cabrera slashed it into right-center for a two-out single and the eventual deciding run.

“Incredible at-bat,” manager A.J. Hinch marveled afterward. “Obviously he fought himself to get to it, and the ball was just away from him enough for him to be able to hit the kind of patented Miggy single, which we’ve seen as a young player, we’ve seen as a mid-aged player and now we’re seeing as a veteran, older player.

“It seems like there’s never a doubt that he’s going to do something in those moments. He’s pretty calm, and he can take whatever the game gives him.”

The game is giving him fastballs right now, and he’s keeping up. After batting under .200 against fastballs in April and May, he hit .357 (10-for-28) off velocity in June and .368 (7-for-19) in July. His launch angle is lower, but his success is greater.

And yet, hitting that 100 mph fastball might be one of his low-key greater feats. It’s the second-hardest pitch he has hit for a base hit since Statcast began in 2015. The only harder pitch was a 102 mph from Twins closer Jhoan Duran last year. Father Time might be unbeaten, but Cabrera is proving the radar gun isn’t.

It was the kind of hit that reminded him of something his first Tigers manager, Jim Leyland, told him in his first visit here as a Tiger: Stop hitting fly balls. Use the big ballpark and get hits.

“When we play here, we always talk about getting hits and trying to hit the ball in the gaps.”

After so much success at Kauffman Stadium, it’s worth paying attention.