Triple double: Miggy has #ASGWorthy night
Tigers star achieves feat for third time in career, just misses third four-hit game of season
DETROIT -- Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Miguel Cabrera's impressive Friday night was that Tigers manager Brad Ausmus wasn't asked about it at all during his seven-minute-plus postgame news conference. Not once.
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The first baseman hit three doubles in a game for just the third time in his career. He finished the night 3-for-4 with an RBI and raised his American League-leading batting average to .354 during Detroit's 5-4 win over the White Sox at Comerica Park.
He's batting .481 with 15 RBIs over his last 15 games.
"I have to train my swing to do exactly what I want it to do," said right fielder J.D. Martinez, who hit the decisive homer in the eighth inning. "Where guys like Miggy have just been doing it naturally."
Video: CWS@DET: Martinez drills a solo shot to break the tie
It marked Cabrera's 26th multi-hit game, good for third in the AL.
Cabrera's performance began with a run-scoring double in the first inning. The slugger drove a fastball to the right-center-field gap, deep enough that he may have reached safely had he tried for a triple.
In the third, he pounced on another fastball from left-hander Jose Quintana, lining it to left field, and Cabrera sprayed another ball to right after working a 3-1 count against reliever Jake Petricka in the seventh.
Video: CWS@DET: Ausmus on Martinez's late homer, 5-4 victory
"When I go in there and do my little drills, it's something that [Cabrera] would never do," Martinez said. "He just goes in there, he gets loose, does one little thing and he's good."
Were it not for a line drive right at second baseman Carlos Sanchez in the fifth inning, Cabrera would have had his third four-hit game of the year.
"He's the best hitter in the game," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "You try to limit what's going on. You try to keep him in the yard. It's hard to do. It sounds crazy, but if he just hits a single, you're like, 'OK, we'll work with that.' And he didn't hit too many singles. He doesn't hit too many singles."