A stray pitch bounced off the backstop toward Miguel Cabrera, and then instinct took over

While batting during the first inning on Thursday, Miguel Cabrera watched as a Hiroki Kuroda pitch sailed past Chris Stewart to the backstop. The ball bounced in an upward trajectory back toward the home plate region, and Stewart casually raised his glove to reclaim it. End of story, right?

Except, that's not how Miggy operates. The idea of catching of a baseball in motion, identical to the ones he has handled in the field over 7,000 times in his career, was too irresistible to pass up. While he didn't exactly box out Stewart, the 6-foot-4 Cabrera easily outleapt the the catcher -- also 6-foot-4, but grounded -- to snatch it away.

Miggy casually tossed the ball to the dugout, returned to the batter's box and stroked a single on the next pitch he saw.

-- Dan Wohl / MLB.com