The Tigers have spent much of this final stretch looking at players with an eye towards 2021. Miguel Cabrera is now one of them.

“This guy’s good, man,” interim manager Lloyd McClendon said with a laugh. “Just when you count him out, he bounces back. None of this surprises me.”

Cabrera can’t slug the team out of its losing streak, now at four games after Thursday’s 8-7 loss to the Royals in Kansas City. But with two three-run home runs in a near-comeback Wednesday night in Minnesota, then a two-run homer and a two-out RBI single Thursday, he slugged Detroit back into both games.

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With three tape-measure homers over the last two nights, Cabrera is not only making milestones like the 500-homer club well within reach next season, he’s raising hopes he could be a feared slugger once more.

“Miggy's in the best shape of his life,” McClendon said. “He's feeling good. He's finally got his timing. His legs are strong. He's got a lot of issues that are behind him from a physical standpoint. And next year should only get better.”

One night after Cabrera turned on a pair of sliders for homers deep to left at Target Field, he sent a 3-2 fastball from Royals rookie starter Kris Bubic to straightaway center and watched it fly. The ball landed midway up the batter’s eye at Kauffman Stadium, a 450-foot drive according to Statcast -- his eighth-longest home run since Statcast arrived in 2015.

Cabrera’s 10th home run in his 55th game of the season tied Thursday’s game, taking Michael Fulmer off the hook in his final start of the year. The Royals pulled back in front with four runs off Detroit’s bullpen, including three off a wild Gregory Soto, but they made sure to pitch to Cabrera carefully every time he came back up around, including a pitching change with two on and two outs in the sixth inning.

That still didn’t help them when back-to-back two-out singles from Victor Reyes and Willi Castro in the eighth inning brought up Cabrera as the potential tying run. Hard-throwing Royals setup man Josh Staumont froze Cabrera on a curveball for strike two, prompting the slugger to quip, “Nice pitch.” But when Staumont followed with a 97 mph fastball off the plate, the kind of pitch that sent Cabrera flailing for much of the season, the former Triple Crown winner got enough to foul it off.

“He’s got that quick twitch going,” McClendon said.

Staumont went for the strikeout again, this time with a high fastball, but Cabrera laced it back up the middle and into center field to score Reyes for an 8-6 game. Former Royal Jorge Bonifacio's ensuing single off Jake Newberry brought in another run and sent pinch-runner Derek Hill into third as the potential tying run before Niko Goodrum struck out to end the threat.

Castro and Cabrera, batting back-to-back in Detroit’s order, both went 3-for-5 with three RBIs.

“That’s him,” Castro said. “He’s a great hitter. I’ve learned a lot from him. I try to learn every time I see him taking [batting practice], seeing his routine. He’s great to watch.”

It was a reminder of the trepidation Cabrera put in opponents during his prime, when he regularly made Kauffman Stadium look small. He entered Thursday’s series opener batting .308 with 16 homers, 77 RBIs and an .875 OPS in 97 career games at The K, but he hadn’t homered in Kansas City since he took since-retired Peter Moylan deep on Sept. 2, 2016. He hit just 11-for-53 (.208) there from ‘17 to ‘19; his lone extra-base hit during the slump was a double in ‘17.

Cabrera entered Sunday batting .232 with six home runs and 23 RBIs in 2020. He's 8-for-19 with four home runs and 12 RBIs in his last four games, including 1,301 feet of home runs -- nearly a quarter-mile on three long balls -- over the past two nights. He has hit two of his three longest homers since ‘18.

In a normal 162-game schedule, the stretch would be setting him up for the kind of midseason tear he enjoyed in his prime years. In this 60-game schedule, he will have to settle for momentum going into 2021.

Candelario exits with low back tightness
Bonifacio made his first appearance against his old club after first baseman Jeimer Candelario left the game in the fourth inning with low back tightness. He’s listed as day to day, but McClendon said the Tigers are optimistic he’ll be able to play again this season.

“I think it started with his hips kind of locking up on him,” McClendon said. “The doctor looked at him and thinks he should be OK, so we're hopeful. He may need a day, but he should be back in the lineup.”