LAKELAND, Fla. -- Miguel Cabrera and Josh Harrison both said watching Mets ace Jacob deGrom painting the corners of the strike zone with 97-99 mph fastballs Friday forced them to get their batting eye in regular-season mode. On Saturday, Cabrera took out the results on Braves pitching prospect Jacob Webb.

Cabrera did not see where his two-run home run landed in the depths of Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. He thought he was running out a fly ball to right-center field.

"I saw it when I hit it," Cabrera said of his first home run of the spring in Saturday’s 7-4 win over the Braves.

The ball landed in the back of the visiting bullpen, just missing the party-deck area high above it. Even with the wind blowing out, it was monstrous drive, and a reminder that the 35-year-old Cabrera still has the power to send a ball deep when he connects.

"In this game, you never know," Cabrera said. "Sometimes you're hitting hard balls and the next week you’re hitting soft. Let's see how I react. At some point in Spring Training, you're going to be tired, because we do a lot of stuff here and we stay for practice and do the early work."

Cabrera hadn't hit a home run in a game setting since April 28, when he took an Andrew Cashner pitch deep down the right-field line at Camden Yards. He had gone homerless for a month -- 13 games plus an injury stint -- when he suffered a season-ending biceps tear in mid-June. 

While Cabrera has been trying to get his legs under him, he has been churning out base hits while showing a fairly good grasp of the strike zone. Add a single and a walk to Saturday's home run, and he's 6-for-11 with three walks so far this spring.

"He's actually been swinging good, and we've seen him hit it all over the place in BP," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's all about timing. He's been off a long, long time. He won't have to work as hard as a lot of other guys for timing. He's just a good hitter."

If he wasn't dialed in before, the sight of deGrom in regular-season form forced him to focus early.

"Everybody throws hard, so you have to be ready for that," Cabrera said. "You have to be aggressive, but at the same time, for me I have to take some pitches and see it, because for a long time I didn't face pitches. And right now it's hard to see what is going to be my strike zone, so I have to feel it out."

Zim zones in

Jordan Zimmermann is still getting the feel for his changeup and his slider two starts into Spring Training. His sense of humor, however, is in midseason form.

When Zimmermann induced a third-inning double play from Ender Inciarte after a leadoff single, he lost track of the outs.

"It took me 20-some starts last year to get [a double play], so I didn't really know what happened out there," said Zimmermann, who induced four double plays in 25 regular-season starts last year. "So I just started walking off with two outs. I thought it was three, had to make a quick U-turn."

Zimmermann used a strikeout-throwout double play to get out of a 24-pitch opening inning with a lone run allowed. He threw 22 pitches over the next two innings combined, facing the minimum six batters.

"That was really my first time [pitching] out of the stretch, so I was a little lost in the first inning," Zimmermann said. "And then I got back on track. [In the] second inning I felt much better with command and everything, and third inning was pretty solid. It wasn't the best outing, but it was still decent."

Quick hits

• Zimmermann, a teammate of Bryce Harper for four years in Washington, said it'll be "a little different" seeing Harper in a Phillies uniform. "I'm happy for him," Zimmermann said. "He's obviously really good and really young. It's a lot of money, but I feel like it's a good deal for both sides. He's got 13 years, and they're not paying him $30 million a year."

• Franklin Perez, the Tigers' third-ranking prospect according to MLB Pipeline, did not pitch Saturday due to a spasm in the upper trapezius muscle. He's considered day-to-day.

Up next

The Tigers have their second split-squad set of the week, both on the road. Daniel Norris makes his second start of the spring in his try to crack Detroit's rotation when the Tigers visit the Yankees in a 1:05 p.m. ET start in Tampa. Down the road in Sarasota, Matthew Boyd makes his second start in a 3:05 p.m. start against the Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium, a game that includes Jeimer Candelario, JaCoby Jones, Niko Goodrum and Grayson Greiner. Watch both games on MLB.TV.