Cabrera completes impressive comeback month

SEATTLE -- For Miguel Cabrera, those April showers eventually brought May power.

Even by the two-time reigning AL MVP's standards, the final numbers from this past month were impressive. Considering where he stood at the end of April, they constituted a bounce back.

Cabrera's .380 (41-for-108) average was his highest ever for May, barely beating out his .379 May last year. Likewise, his solo homer Saturday night pushed him to 34 RBIs for May, his most ever for any calendar month, and the most by a Tiger in May since Damion Easley drove in 34 runs in May 1998.

Nobody in the American League drove in as many runs over the past month, including Baltimore's Nelson Cruz and Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion. Both of them topped Cabrera for home runs.

Compare May to Cabrera's April and the numbers look like they belong to different hitters. Cabrera batted .277 in the season's opening month with two home runs, 15 RBIs and a .735 OPS. He was getting back to regular-season work after core-muscle surgery over the offseason, but he was also frustrated with his swing and approach, leading to extra work with hitting coach Wally Joyner.

Even Ausmus chipped in, throwing early batting practice to Cabrera at times during the month.

"I've said it from the get-go: I'm not worried about Miggy," Ausmus said a couple weeks ago.

Cabrera drove in a run in 19 out of 29 games for the month, and plated multiple runs 11 times.