Triple Crown Chase Heats Up
Stan McNeal - SportingNews.com
Aug 24, 2010
Don't look now, but this year of the pitcher is about to be disrupted by a run for the Triple Crown.
Thank you, Miguel Cabrera. And you, Albert Pujols. You, too, Joey Votto.
Cabrera's attempt to lead the American League in batting average, homers and RBIs is different from the two National Leaguers. The Cardinals and Reds have the NL Central title to fight over. The Tigers are four games under .500 and 12 games behind the AL Central-leading Twins. They have little besides Cabrera's chase for history to keep their fans interested.
Tigers fans certainly have the right guy for whom to root. Cabrera is widely regarded as the AL's best righthanded hitter and the one who enters any season with the best chance of becoming the first hitter since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown.
"Oh yeah," Tigers teammate Brandon Inge says. "He's the total package as far as hitting goes."
"He's the one guy who could do it," says former White Sox slugger Frank Thomas, who made a run or two at a Triple Crown during his 19 seasons in the majors.
Earlier this season, Johnny Damon called Cabrera the best hitter he ever has seen. Did you get a little carried away, Johnny? "I don't back down off those (comments)," Damon says. "What I saw from him in the first half, man, especially playing at Comerica (Park), he was that special. If he's playing at a different ballpark, he's sitting at 40 home runs, 120 RBIs right now and his average would be .360."
Such numbers would make Cabrera No. 1 in all three Triple Crown categories. Entering today's play, he leads only in RBIs (101) while he is second in homers and average -- with considerable deficits to close. Toronto's Jose Bautista leads in homers, 38-31, and Texas' Josh Hamilton is first in average, .354-.340.
As recently as Sunday, Cabrera's odds at a Triple Crown run looked as long as the Tigers' chances of making the postseason. He didn't homer and drove in only three runs during the first two weeks of August. He also had 13 walks in that span and admits he was confused because he couldn't figure out when teams might pitch around him.
But Cabrera broke a season-long 13-game, home run drought on Sunday at Chicago in between three intentional walks, then powered up at Yankee Stadium. All four of his hits in the four-game series in New York were homers, and the fourth -- the only one that didn't come with the bases empty -- made him the majors' first player to reach 100 RBIs.
As September nears, two factors should play in Cabrera's favor:
* Cabrera will face just one team (Texas) with a pitching staff ranked higher than 13th in ERA in the majors in the Tigers' 13 remaining series. They get the 28th-ranked Royals for nine more games and the 24th-ranked Indians for five more, and they finish the season with four games at 26th-ranked Baltimore. Only 15 of the club's 40 remaining games will be against contenders that are likely to pitch around him.
* He never has been one to fade down the stretch, except for that embarrassing final weekend last season when he had to be picked up at the local police station by his general manager after an all-nighter.
Cabrera has turned around his personal life since that incident and has been determined since spring training to quiet his doubters.
"I feel a lot better. I am more mature," Cabrera says. "I think I am a way, way better hitter than last season."
Perhaps even good enough to take the glimmer off a season that so far has been dominated by pitchers.
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