DETROIT -- The game looked like something out of the Tigers’ lean years of the past decade. The swing from Miguel Cabrera looked like something from his Triple Crown year.

It was one swing, and it accounted for a lone run in Detroit’s eventual 13-4 loss Friday, but it was a reminder of what Cabrera looks like when he can hit to the opposite field with power. His second-inning line drive off Adam Plutko produced an exit velocity of 107.3 mph, carrying the ball over the cutout in right-center. It was by far the hardest hit of his four homers this year, his lowest launch-angle home run, at 23 degrees, and his second-hardest base hit of any type.

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“He drove the heck out of that ball,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “That was impressive.”

More important, it was his hardest-hit ball to the opposite field of any type this season by nearly two miles an hour, according to Statcast. He saw a full-count fastball on the outside corner and not only connected, he punished it. If he can repeat that, he has a chance to add some punch to his numbers as the summer goes on. It might not make much difference in the Tigers’ season if they can’t straighten out their pitching, as Friday’s tumultuous start from Ryan Carpenter shows, but it could give them something.

For Cabrera, it gave another milestone. His 469th career home run pushed him past Hall of Famer Chipper Jones and into 34th place on MLB’s all-time list. Next up is Carlos Delgado, with 473.

It gives fans at least some excitement during a stretch in which the Tigers have lost 14 of their 16 home games. The crowd reception to Cabrera’s at-bats has grown louder since his grand slam off American League Cy Young Award-winner Blake Snell on June 4.

Cabrera is about a week and a half removed from the knee issues that led to the diagnosis of chronic changes to the joint as the result of attrition from a long career, essentially limiting him to mostly designated hitter duties for the rest of his career. He’s batting 10-for-33 since then with two home runs, two doubles and seven RBIs. The knee brace he's donned in response to the diagnosis has given him enough stability to generate some power in his lower body instead of relying on his arms, like he had been for much of the season's first couple months.

The consequences of that lower-body strength aren’t hard to find. Cabrera entered Friday batting just .282 off fastballs this season, with 30 singles, six doubles and a lone home run, good for a .351 slugging percentage. By comparison, he hit .415 with a .569 slugging percentages off fastballs in his half-season last year. He has never slugged less than .480 off fastballs in a season since pitch tracking began in 2008, according to Statcast, even when his batting average off them had waned.

Cabrera’s homer and Brandon Dixon’s ensuing solo shot tied the score after Cleveland plated a pair in the top of the frame, but Detroit had no answer for the eight-run fourth inning that followed off Carpenter and Buck Farmer. Carpenter gave up eight runs (six earned) on eight hits with four walks and two strikeouts.

“We just didn’t pitch good enough, and we didn’t catch the ball good enough, and that’s what happened,” Gardenhire said. “We scored some runs early, a couple of home runs, and we had some life in us. But then it just kind of sucks the air out of you when you have a big inning like that against you."

Tigers option Carpenter, place Greiner on injured list

Carpenter’s outing scuttled any idea of him staying in the clubhouse for an opener or bullpen start Saturday. Detroit optioned Carpenter to Triple-A Toledo after the game and called up left-hander Gregory Soto, who will start Saturday.

Carpenter had a three-start stretch that raised hopes that he'd shaken his struggles against big league hitters, culminating in seven innings of two-run ball against the Rays on June 4. He's yielded 16 runs, 14 earned, on 18 hits in 6 2/3 innings since then, walking five and striking out four.

“The suggestion going back is to watch the difference in the videos from [then] to tonight,” Gardenhire said. “You’ll see the difference in body language and everything. … We need this guy. We need him to go back and find himself.”

Soto gave up 17 runs on 22 hits over 13 2/3 innings in four starts for the Tigers last month, then he struggled in back-to-back starts for Triple-A. He seemed to show progress in his last start, striking out eight batters over 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball last Saturday against Indianapolis.

The Tigers changed the other half of their battery Saturday with catcher Grayson Greiner, who went on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain. Veteran catcher Bobby Wilson was selected from Toledo to fill his spot.

Gardenhire said that Greiner suffered the injury swinging a bat before the game. Though the Tigers have top catching prospect Jake Rogers with Toledo, Gardenhire said that Rogers wasn’t a consideration. Rogers is 4-for-35 over his past 10 games after a hot start with the Hens following his promotion from Double-A Erie last month.

"We need Rogers to play. He needs to keep playing and find his swing," Gardenhire said. "You can't bring a guy up here who's struggling down there and put him in the middle of this. We don't need that right now, and he doesn't need it. He's still gotta grow."