Apparently Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers' slugging first baseman, returned to his home drunk on Friday night, got into an altercation with his wife, and was taken to the local police station. Although no charges are pending, both Cabrera and his wife received minor facial injuries. Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski picked up Cabrera at the police station, and he has since gone 0-for-7 combined (plus an intentional walk) in Saturday and Sunday's games.
Maybe it's a tad reactionary and unfair to blame Cabrera's recent poor performance on his little incident, especially in a season where he hit 33 homers, drove in 101 runs, and put up a .323/.395/.541 line (so far). But when you're the star player on a team that's tied for first place on the last day of the season, you have to be on top of your game, both mentally and physically, professionally and personally.
I want to see the Tigers in the playoffs for a number of reasons, not the least of which is wanting to see Justin Verlander strike out Yankee after Yankee in the first round. But if the Twins end up beating the Tigers this afternoon and the Miguel Cabrera we've seen all season doesn't show up ready to play, I would not discount his drunken escapade as one of the reasons.
It's all about intangibles, people!
So then what does it mean that the Tigers did lose, but it was not directly related to Cabrera's performance? He went 2-5 with a walk, a double, and a 2-run homerun (with 2 outs) AND made a phenomenal defensive play at the beginning of the game.
ReplyDeleteActually, all of the Tigers pretty much had a great game, and so did all the Twins. I too would have loved to see Verlander (and possibly Porcello, the Youkilis-Thrashing baby-face) making fools out of the Yankees, but that's the fun of baseball, it seems!
The Tigers lost because Brandon Inge was hit by a pitch that should have forced in the go-ahead run, but the ump missed it.
ReplyDeleteSo the moral of the story is Cabrera put on his game face, but luck (and possibly the Metrodome) was against his team.
Sigh. Remember that time that the Twins got swept in humiliating fashion? I wonder if the Tigers would have won a game...
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