DETROIT _ Don't put him out to pasture just yet.
Miguel Cabrera came to bat in the first inning with two outs and a runner at third base. Brandon Dixon, a player still trying to find himself at the big-league level, was on deck.
Two years ago, Cabrera would have been walked intentionally. Even with reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell pitching, he would have at least been pitched very carefully. He certainly wouldn't have seen a fastball in the strike zone in a 3-2 count.
But, Cabrera is 36 and had been out of the lineup for two games with soreness in his right knee. It was acknowledged before that game that the pain is chronic and will be with him the rest of his career. Snell, like pitchers have all year, challenged him with a fastball.
Guess what? As manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game, Cabrera can still hit.
Cabrera lashed a sinking liner to right field that bounced past a diving Guillermo Heredia for an RBI double and the Tigers were on their way to a 9-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.
And Cabrera wasn't done.
Snell retired 10 straight hitters until JaCoby Jones, extending his career-long hitting streak to 10 games, singled with one out in the fifth inning. Niko Goodrum followed with his second hit.
Left-handed swinging Christin Stewart, who struck out twice against the lefty Snell, foiled the Rays' defensive shift with a single through the vacated shortstop hole that scored Jones and tied the game at 2.
After Snell walked Nick Castellanos, Cabrera strode to the plate again, this time with the bases loaded. Snell got ahead 1-2 with 97-mph heaters. But, knowing Cabrera beat him with a fastball earlier, he tried to flip a curveball on him.
Cabrera stayed on it and hoisted it over the left-field fence _ grand slam home run, the fifth of his career and his first since June 1, 2013. The standing ovation he got as he trotted back into the dugout had to feel good _ especially after all the uncertainty and doubt he was feeling this weekend, worrying if the knee was going to require surgery.
The home run, No. 468 of his career, tied Cabrera with Chipper Jones for 34th in Major League Baseball history. His two hits put him at 2,733 and sent him past Tony Perez into 59th place all-time.
Cabrera poked hit No. 2,734 in the seventh inning _ three hits, five RBIs, like old times. He got another warm ovation after he was lifted for a pinch-runner.
Dawel Lugo, now the Tigers regular third baseman with Jeimer Candelario on the injured list (shoulder), got three hits including a two-run triple in a three-run seventh inning.
Goodrum had three hits, as well.
Tigers starting pitcher Ryan Carpenter deserved some kudos, as well. He pitched seven strong innings, his third straight solid outing and the longest of his career. And, speaking to how efficient he was, he needed just 84 pitches.
Carpenter gave up seven hits, four of them in the third inning. The only damage was a two-run, opposite-field home run by former Tiger Avisail Garcia, who as 11 on the year.
His slider was his best pitch. He threw 28 of them. Ten of them were put in play and the Rays hitters were 2-for-10 against it.
In retrospect, Gardenhire might've let Carpenter pitch the eighth inning, too.
With the Tigers up 9-2, he gave the ball to setup man Joe Jimenez _ a low-leverage inning to get him back on track after he gave up four runs in Sunday's loss in Atlanta.
Didn't work that way. Jimenez walked two and needed 25 pitches to get two outs. Gardenhire had to pull him.
Buck Farmer got two quick strikes on Christian Arroyo, but hit him on the hand with a fastball. Next up was former Tigers prospect Willy Adames. Farmer fell behind 2-0, then threw two 96-mph fastball by him to even the count.
Adames took a slider just out of the strike zone, and then mashed a 3-2 fastball into the seats in the left field _ his first career grand slam.
The Tigers lead was cut from seven to three.
The drama ended there, though. Shane Greene worked around an infield single in the ninth to earn his American League-leading 19th save.
