Miguel Cabrera didn’t get any closer to 500 on Friday. Neither did his team.
Cabrera remained two homers shy of the 500 career mark, while the Detroit Tigers dropped six games below .500 with a 6-1 loss in Cleveland.
Cabrera singled and walked in three official at-bats. The Tigers were stymied by Cal Quantrill, who notched a career-high 10 strikeouts in seven dominant innings.
For the second time this season, Matt Manning got pounded by Cleveland batters. He allowed six runs on a season-most 10 hits in four innings.
Jeimer Candelario’s RBI single in the ninth prevented a shutout.
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Cabrera settles for single
Cabrera had a good opportunity to at least add to his career RBI total in his first at-bat. The Tigers had runners on the corners with one out, but Cabrera rolled over on a Quantrill slider and grounded into a double play for the 11th time this season.
Quantrill struck him out looking at a 95 mph fastball in the fourth. Cabrera smacked an 0-2 slider for a single up the middle in the seventh.
Reliever Blake Parker walked him on five pitches in the ninth.
Cabrera has a hit in 10 of his last 12 games and has reached base in 13 consecutive games.
Secondary pitches fail Manning
Cleveland hammered Manning in his third career start, back on June 28, piling up nine runs on nine hits in 3⅔ innings.
Manning relied heavily on his four-seam fastball in that game. He diversified his approach during his second outing in Cleveland but the results weren’t much better.
He got off to a good start, striking out Harold Ramirez with a slider and Bradley Zimmer with a curveball in the second inning.
A bloop single by Austin Hedges led to a four-run inning for Cleveland in the third. Ernie Clement ripped a slider for a double and Myles Straw lined another slider over shortstop Harold Castro’s glove for a single.
Later in the inning, Jose Ramirez jumped on a first-pitch sinker for a double and Bobby Bradley pulled a slider down the right-field line for a two-run double.
The slider got Manning into trouble again in the fourth, as Hedges and Clement ripped back-to-back singles off that pitch. Cleveland went on to score two runs to push its lead to 6-0.
Castro gets the calls at No. 3
Robbie Grossman wasn’t in the lineup after suffering a left arm contusion when he was hit by a pitch on Thursday. Manager AJ Hinch made an unconventional choice to replace him at the No. 3 spot in the lineup — Harold Castro.
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Castro entered the game with six career homers in 189 games and six extra-base hits in 64 games this season.
He singled in his first at-bat and finished 1-for-4 hitting in front of Cabrera.