Kansas City, Mo. — What do Miguel Cabrera, Ted Williams and a stolen base have in common?
Check out the top of seventh inning of the Tigers’ 7-5 win over the Royals on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
The Tigers scored four times in that inning, breaking open a 3-3 game, and Cabrera was at the heart of it.
Javier Báez started the rally with his second double of the game. He was at third with one out when Cabrera hit a bouncing ball at shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who was playing in on the grass. He whiffed on the ball and Cabrera was safe at first on the error.
But the RBI was the 1,838th of his career, tying Williams for 14th place on the all-time list.
Cabrera went to second on a wild pitch and then, surprise, he got a huge jump and stole third on unsuspecting reliever Jose Cuas. Catcher MJ Melendez and third baseman Emmanuel Rivera might’ve been a little startled, too, because the late throw to third ended up in left field and Cabrera got up and trotted home.
It was his first steal since 2020.
The Tigers ended up scoring twice more with two outs on a double by Jonathan Schoop and a single by Spencer Torkelson. They stole two bases in the inning and were gifted two errors and a wild pitch by the Royals. Three of the runs were unearned.
Schoop had two hits and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Torkelson, after hitting 1,000-feet worth of fly ball outs on Monday, had a three-hit night.
The game marked the return of left fielder Akil Baddoo, who had two singles and an RBI in his first big-league game since May 8. After a rough start to the season, Baddoo spent the last two months at Triple-A Toledo.
The Royals didn’t go quietly. The scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning, jumping on reliever Joe Jimenez. Witt walked and scored on a double by Andrew Benintendi.
Hunter Dozier singled Benintendi to third. Jimenez struck out Vinnie Pasquantino for the first out and manager AJ Hinch summoned right-hander Michael Fulmer.
Edward Olivares’ sacrifice fly made it a 7-5 ballgame. Fulmer hit Kyle Isbel with a 2-2 pitch and then fell behind Rivera 3-0.
Dicey. But Fulmer came back with three sliders and struck out Rivera.
Gregory Soto, who on Sunday was named to his second straight American League All-Star team, closed it out for his 18th save.
The game was knotted at three after five innings.
The Royals jumped on rookie right-hander Beau Brieske first, scoring three times in the first two innings. Melendez hit Brieske’s first pitch for a triple and scored on a single by Benintendi.
In the second, Brieske hit Olivares then got tagged for back-to-back doubles by Isbel and Rivera — both left the bats at exit velocities over 100 mph.
But from that point on, Brieske shoved. He allowed just a hit and a walk through six innings. It was his sixth quality start, tying Twins’ Joe Ryan and Padres’ George Kirby for most among rookies in baseball.
The Tigers, meanwhile, left some meat on the bone against faltering lefty Kris Bubic, who came into the game with an ERA just under 7.0.
They left the bases loaded in the first, left runners at the corners in the third and stranded two more runners in the sixth.
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky