MIAMI -- For the umpteenth time this weekend, the crowd at loanDepot park rose to its feet and showered Miguel Cabrera with applause. This time, it was as Cabrera was pinch-run for in the seventh inning, after he worked a walk and chugged around the bases to third.

Cabrera, who is making what can only be dubbed a victory tour in his final Major League season, leaves the city that first made him having put on a show. In the Tigers’ 8-6 loss to the Marlins on Sunday, Cabrera capped a personally momentous series with a 1-for-3 afternoon. He received exuberant applause and an ovation in each of his four plate appearances.

The 12-time All-Star was discovered by the Marlins, who signed the then-16-year-old to a $1.8 million contract in 1999. He made the Majors just four years later, a 20-year-old helping to propel the Marlins to the franchise’s second World Series championship.

On Sunday, it was Cabrera, along with Spencer Torkelson and Javier Báez, who set the tone for the Tigers in the second inning. Torkelson and Báez hit a pair of RBI singles, setting up Cabrera for a two-out, two-run double to give Detroit an early lead for the second time this series.

“The fans here, you know, they love him -- and this is where he lives,” Riley Greene said on Saturday. “This is where he started. So you know, it's a little different vibe here just because it's Miggy and it's Miami. It's awesome. It's awesome to see all the fans that love him here.”

The Tigers got two more runs in the seventh after Cabrera walked to load the bases behind Báez (single) and Jake Rogers (double). Then, Kerry Carpenter smacked a two-run single that saw Cabrera pumping his arms going for third base. It was then that Detroit opted to pinch-run Akil Baddoo for Cabrera as the Marlins changed pitchers, giving Cabrera the chance for the acknowledgment he deserves from the city where he became a big leaguer, and where he lives in the offseason.

“I think [manager A.J. Hinch made] the right move, because I was tired after that,” Cabrera said, laughing. “No, I try -- we try -- to be aggressive on the bases. Anytime we got a chance to go first to third we got to do it, and I had a chance right there and I made it.”

“Miggy -- he's an entertainer at heart, and still a big kid,” Hinch said. “Obviously with the runner, we didn't run for him at first, and I went to [the pinch-runner at] third -- there's just a lot of plays that Baddoo can score that Miggy can't. But he's playful as ever. He's still a kid at heart, and probably thought he was flying around the bases.”

With Baddoo on third, the Tigers had a chance to bolster their 6-5 lead. Perhaps that would have given Detroit’s bullpen something to work with. Instead, the Tigers lost the back-and-forth tug of war and with it, the series in Miami.

“We had plenty of opportunities to win the game, and also couldn't get out of our own way a couple times,” Hinch said. “... A winnable series that we didn't win.”

Cabrera finished the weekend, the first two days of which were focused almost wholeheartedly on honoring the legend of Cabrera and other Venezuelan greats, 3-for-10 with two doubles, a run scored and two RBIs. It was one of the rare occasions this season in which Cabrera has played all three games, as Hinch and the Tigers want the best out of the 40-year-old.

“I'm no dummy when it comes to playing him in Miami,” Hinch said pregame Friday. “These are fun environments. Whenever there's a buzz in the air, you want your players to get that experience. It just brings a little extra out of everybody.”

While the outcome of the weekend wasn’t necessarily what the Tigers wanted, the environment certainly didn’t disappoint -- nor did the festivities for Cabrera.

“Oh it's unbelievable,” Cabrera said of the weekend in Miami. “I want to appreciate everybody, want to say thank you because they gave me something special in my career to remember all my life. It's gonna be [one of] my top-five moments of my career.”