Everybody knows Miguel Cabrera swings a big stick. The only problem is, we haven’t seen it in the past couple months.
Most likely pressing due to the enormous amount of pressure Miguel Cabrera faces every game knowing he’s the only one getting hits on a consistent basis, he definitely started to struggle in clutch situations. There’s no denying that. His BA with RISP was uncharacteristically low and that’s most likely because he was trying to do too much when he would finally get a chance to bring runners home.
With that being said, you can’t pin consecutive 2-1 losses and consistent one or two run nights on the only hitter, not only hitting above .265, but hitting 60-some points higher than that. Miguel needs help and it was clearer than my vision after I eat my daily carrots and put in my 20/20 contacts.
Last night, Miguel received that help, in a big way, and you could see the dramatic effect it had on Miguel Cabrera’s bat. How big of a difference did it make that the hitters around him were finally carrying their weight?
BIG.
Miguel went 4-6 with a home run and four RBIs. His batting average went up nearly ten points to .334. Oh, by the way, his two outs both happened to be Top 10 plays on Sportscenter, meaning he was robbed and they could have easily been hits, which would have added to his RBI total. With the four RBI’s he did get, Miguel moved into the MLB Top 50 for RBIs and another night like that he’ll move into the Top 30.
Overall, the Tigers had 19 hits on the night, which was pretty fun to watch. Let’s not get too carried away, though; it’s just one game. As far as I see it, Detroit can look at this in a couple different ways. Dave Dombrowski can be content with the way the team performed tonight, assume it’ll happen more often, and not make any moves. In doing that he would be relying on the lineup that, for the greater part of the year, has struggled to help Miguel Cabrera carry the load. The other perspective is DD use this game as a telltale sign that when Tiger hitters not named Miguel Cabrera get hits, Tigers named Miguel Cabrera benefit the most, and given the fact hitters not named Miguel Cabrera have not been getting hits most of the season, adding another bat could help Cabrera (and the rest of the lineup because you could see tonight, hitting is contagious). You follow?
In other words, go out and get another bat. Do it, Dave.
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