Tigers' Miguel Cabrera shows another layer of greatness after HBP
LAKELAND, Fla. – Miguel Cabrera plays baseball with an infectious, childlike joy.
And he is a marvel with his bat.
But there is more to Cabrera than his offense. The game seems to move in slow motion for him. It’s like his brain works at warp speed when others are stuck in the slow lane.
“He has a tremendously high baseball IQ,” Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.
That razor-sharp IQ was on full display on Saturday during the Tigers’ 11-4 spring training victory over Houston.
In the third inning, the Tigers hammered back-to-back-to-back home runs. Andrew Romine sent one into the rightfield bullpen at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Ian Kinsler pounded a ball onto the berm in left. And Victor Martinez put one onto the Margaritaville Patio beyond rightfield.
Justin Verlander, who had started the game, was in the clubhouse.
“I was actually back there talking to Gibby (Kirk Gibson),” Justin Verlander said. “He was like, ‘Somebody is going to get hit.’ ”
“Nah,” Verlander replied. “This is spring training. Nobody is going to get hit. And it’s Miggy.”
On the first pitch, Cabrera was plunked on his forearm.
Tensions skyrocketed.
Most of the Tigers jumped up to the top step of the dugout, and Verlander came running out of the clubhouse.
“We need to protect that man,” Verlander said. “He gets pitched in a lot. And we had some freak injuries last year, where guys got pitched in and got hit on the hands. Broken hands and stuff. You could very easily point to a couple of those as to why we weren’t in the playoffs last year.”
But Cabrera remained calm and cool.
He recognized instantly he was hit by a slider, not an intentional fastball, and he quickly diffused the situation.
“He understood what it looked like,” Verlander said. “That’s some of the greatness of a guy like Miguel. You are talking about slowing the game down. The guy immediately understands what it looked like. He didn’t want the benches to clear and have a whole huge fight. Immediately, he understood it wasn’t on purpose. It was an off-speed pitch.”
Cabrera quickly motioned to the bench that he was not injured.
“You always worry about it, but he indicated he was fine,” Ausmus said. “I think he knows that if the guy was throwing at him, he wouldn’t throw a breaking ball at him. It just got away from him. Early spring training.”
Still, Houston Astros pitcher Edison Frias was ejected by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.
“I was more surprised because the ejection is supposed to be off intent and it was a breaking ball,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch told reporters. “Cabrera was laughing about it, but the umpire made a decision and he can’t go back on it. They’re protecting one of the best hitters and it was sort of a perfect storm with three home runs. But he threw a breaking ball … there was no malice involved.”
Cabrera’s instant reaction showed how fast his brain works. “You have to be pretty comfortable to assess all of that, that quickly,” Verlander said. “Nothing speeds up on him.”
Verlander, it should be noted, had an impressive performance himself, recording two strikeouts in two innings of work, hitting 95 m.p.h. on the radar gun. He has been working with weighted balls, hoping to improve how he pitches early in the season, and the early result was impressive.
“It was certainly the best, first outing from Justin that I’ve seen since I’ve been here," Ausmus said.
So Verlander had a fantastic start.
The Tigers’ offense got hot, hitting four home runs.
And Cabrera showed, once again, why he is such a special talent.
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
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