Miggy (2 HRs) slams Royals with No. 491

The numbers were certainly in Miguel Cabrera's favor as he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the seventh inning on Friday night. The momentum, too.

Six pitches into the at-bat against fellow veteran Greg Holland, the Tigers had their answer: Cabrera’s 405-foot grand slam dropped neatly into the left-field fountain area and put Detroit ahead for good during a 7-5 win over the Royals in the series opener.

The knock silenced Kauffman Stadium, marked Cabrera’s sixth career slam and slapped an exclamation point on the future Hall of Famer’s first three-hit game of the season. It also marked Detroit’s ninth win in 11 games.

“I love our guys’ approach right now, and it’s been that way for a little bit,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I do think we’ve shown some resilience, a little fight, coming back a couple different times after they scored, so that in itself is a good sign for us.”

Cabrera’s turnaround was another good one. He entered the night with a .184 average after battling a left biceps strain early in the season and then to get his timing back upon his return. Friday was a big step in the right direction, as he also collected a solo home run in the second and a single in the sixth.

He now has 2,887 career hits, moving him into sole possession of 41st place on MLB’s all-time list. Career homers Nos. 490 and 491 kept Cabrera climbing that career chart as well, and he sits two round-trippers shy of tying Fred McGriff and Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig for 28th on that list.

True to form, Cabrera is more worried about team wins than he is chasing the looming 500-homer milestone.

“I don’t want to put that pressure on myself,” he said. “I did that early in the season, and it didn’t work for me. I think [what] works for me is to play and not think about the numbers, because that’s the way I’ve played my whole career, so I want to keep it simple.”

The biggest intangible from Cabrera’s breakout night might have been the sight of the ear-to-ear grin in the dugout that has been prominent for much of his career. The Tigers certainly fed off its return as much as the reason behind it, because, well, when Miggy has fun, everybody has fun.

“[Cabrera] had a big night. He’s had some really good nights in a row where he’s had quality at-bats,” Hinch said. "… I think Miggy is mentally as strong as we have, even going through the lulls that he has early in the season.”

Everyone seemed to gain from Cabrera’s vibe, especially Michael Fulmer, who uncorked a pair of 99-plus mph pitches during a flawless ninth for his fourth save of the season.

Fulmer’s 99.9 mph offering was the hardest in his career, and his 96.5 mph average velo on his 12 offerings was nearly two mph harder than his previous career high.

Robbie Grossman had a trio of hits on Friday and Jake Rogers and Eric Haase each collected two, with the latter also notching his first career outfield assist in the first inning when he threw out Andrew Benintendi trying to stretch his stroke to left into a double.

Cabrera was all business at the plate in the seventh, haranguing home-plate umpire Sean Barber when he called strike two on a Holland pitch that painted the upper-left corner. After a short battle, the 11-year veteran’s payoff pitch -- an 84 mph slider -- didn’t dip quite far enough out of the zone, and Cabrera was all over it.

Cabrera was responsible for putting bat to ball on Friday to keep the streaking Tigers marching on, but history provided a little spoiler alert: He owns the most career hits (122) and RBIs (85) at Kauffman Stadium among active hitters, and is second in extra-base hits (21).

The grand slam pushed him past Jim Thome to 23rd on MLB’s all-time extra-base-hits list. More importantly, it handed the Tigers a reward after another hard-fought battle.

“Really good [to see],” Cabrera said of the resiliency Detroit has shown lately. “Everybody’s doing a really good job playing the game, focused the whole game. We don’t give anything away. We always fight, try to compete.

“That’s the most important thing, to compete and have a chance to win in the ninth inning.”