KANSAS CITY -- Jose Cuas was not expecting 39-year-old Miguel Cabrera to break for third base in a steal attempt with two outs and two strikes in a one-run game on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
But with the shift on and Cuas not looking back to check the runner at second, that’s exactly what Cabrera did.
And when Royals catcher MJ Melendez rushed the throw to third and airmailed it into left field, watching Cabrera score on the error, the play turned from a sure out to a run in an ugly and decisive inning in Kansas City’s 7-5 loss to the Tigers.
“That’s the last thing on my mind, is that he was going to steal a base,” Cuas said. “He got it. And he scored. Beat me. Fooled me.”
“He got a really good jump,” Melendez added. “I didn’t get the best grip on it. I tried to force a throw. You live and you learn from it. [Cabrera is] a vet, he knows what he’s doing, and obviously not the fastest guy, but he picks his time to do stuff like that.”
Melendez’s error was one of three in that half-inning and four for the Royals in the game, including two by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. After starter Kris Bubic’s three-run, 5 2/3-inning outing and Amir Garrett’s key strikeout of Riley Greene ended the sixth inning, the seventh inning began with the score tied, 3-3.
Cuas, pitching for the third day in a row, allowed a leadoff double and saw Javier Báez reach third on Robbie Grossman’s fly ball to center field.
“He’s been used a lot,” manager Mike Matheny said of his reliever. “Everybody has. It’s part of a doubleheader. Got guys that are getting a lot of work in, but I thought he threw better than how the results turned out.”
Cabrera hit an infield chopper, typically fielded easily by Witt as he charged in, with a good chance to nab the runner at home. But the ball hit the lip of Witt’s glove and bounced into the outfield.
“Unfortunately, it looked like we could have had a chance at a play at the plate on the contact play,” Matheny said. “Those are all game changers. That inning got away from us for our defense.”
Cabrera went to second on a wild pitch, then stole a base for the first time since 2020. The pitch was ball four to Willi Castro, on the third-base side of the plate. Melendez should have thrown Cabrera out by several feet. Instead, the throw sailed past third baseman Emmanuel Rivera’s outstretched glove and into left field.
"He saw something, and I guess the athlete in him broke out,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “But it did kind of ignite some fun in the dugout. And obviously, we put some pressure on them. They made some mistakes. We ended up opening up a lead that we needed at the end. But I don't think anybody anticipated Miggy going, including me."
Nobody except Cabrera.
"My mind said go, so go,” Cabrera said. “It was a good opportunity. We got to make something happen. Thank God I was safe.”
The third out eluded the Royals until four batters later, when reliever Joel Payamps got Greene to ground out. At the end of the inning, Kansas City had committed three errors. The Tigers had scored four runs, only one of which was earned.
“It’s baseball,” Melendez said. “It’s going to happen from time to time. … They had a big inning, found some key hits in key situations and took advantage of our mistakes. We can clean it up and do a better job tomorrow.”
The rarity of Witt’s errors was displayed in both the eighth and ninth, when he made two elite plays in the hole to get outs at first base.
Riding with the rookies in the lineup every night -- which the Royals are committed to doing -- is invariably going to have its highs and lows. The highs include games like Monday’s doubleheader sweep and like the offensive production seen on Tuesday. Melendez was 2-for-5 as the leadoff hitter, and he became the third catcher in AL/NL history to hit a leadoff triple.
The lows include mistakes that ultimately led to Tuesday’s loss.
“They’re going to be consistent on the defensive side,” Matheny said. “You’re just going to have some nights like this, and I don’t think it’s necessarily youth as much as the difficulty of the positions they play. You’re talking two positions with a lot of opportunities when you’re talking behind the plate and shortstop.
“They just stand out in close games.”