DETROIT — Miguel Cabrera celebrated MiggyFest a day late.
After going 1 for 4 with a pair of double-play grounders on Friday, the day the his 500th home run milestone was honored in a pregame ceremony, he drove in four runs with three hits sending the Tigers to a 5-1 win over the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park.
The Tigers were down 1-0 when he delivered a two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning. He then lashed a two-run, bases-loaded single in the ninth to pad the cushion.
With his three hits, Cabrera stands 17 shy of 3,000 and he's just four doubles from 600. He would become only the third player ever to achieve 500 homers, 3,000 hits and 600 doubles, joining Hank Aaron and Albert Pujols in that exclusive club.
His 596th double tied him for 18th place all-time with former Tiger Luis Gonzalez.
It was a milestone game for Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, as well, as he finished the home portion of his rookie season with four scoreless, one-hit innings. His strikeout of Salvador Perez to end the first inning was the 200th of his career.
Reaching the plateau in 38 games makes him the fastest Tigers player ever to record 200 punch-outs, besting Michael Fulmer who did it in 40 games. He’s also going to shatter Fulmer’s club rookie record for best strikeout-to-walk ratio.
With one start left, Skubal has already set a new Tigers strikeout mark (163) with just 46 walks. That 3.54 ratio will break Fulmer’s current rookie mark of 3.14 set in 2016. Skubal’s ratio is the best in the American League since Houston’s Collin McHugh posted a 3.83 strikeout-to-walks mark in 2014.
He was so efficient Saturday, manager AJ Hinch gave him an extra inning. He breezed through the scheduled first three in 36 pitches and just one hit, a two-out single by Edward Olivares in the third.
He did get an assist from left-fielder Akil Baddoo, though.
Hunter Dozier thought he had hit his 16th home run of the year, sending a 95-mph fastball rocketing toward the bullpen in left field leading off the third inning. Baddoo tracked the ball to the wall, timed his leap expertly and with his back to the infield, caught the ball with most of his right arm over the fence.
The smile on Baddoo’s face was priceless and it contrasted wonderfully with the look of utter dismay on Dozier’s face.
The Royals broke a scoreless tie against reliever Drew Hutchison in the fifth, without the benefit of a hit. Carlos Santana led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball, to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dozier.
The passed ball by Dustin Garneau was the American League-worst 18th by Tigers catchers.
But Garneau more than redeemed himself, throwing out Olivares and Andrew Benintendi trying to steal second in the sixth and seventh innings. The Royals had a single, double and walk in the seventh but didn’t score.
Things got dicey for the Tigers in the seventh after Kyle Funkhouser gave up a walk and a double to Nicky Lopez with one out. That set up a confrontation with Perez, who stepped to the plate with 46 home runs on his ledger and the tying runs in scoring position.
Funkhouser got him to chase two sliders out of the zone, but Perez worked the count full. Funkhouser went back to the slider and locked Perez up, called strike three.
Hinch then brought in Fulmer, who struck out Benintendi with a wicked curveball to end the inning.
On a night two of his rookie records were bested, Fulmer got the final four outs to earn his 12th save of the season.
One of the hottest hitters in the Tigers’ lineup, Victor Reyes, left the game in the fifth inning with tightness in right groin. He had one of the three Tigers hits at that point, and was 8 for 13 over his last four games.
