Miguel Cabrera Exits Game Early as Detroit Tigers Beat Chicago White Sox

July 21, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Detroit Tigers third basemen Miguel Cabrera (24) fields a ground ball against the Kansas City Royals during the fifth inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

On any other day the storyline could have been Victor Martinez‘s four hit game, Max Scherzer‘s solid eight inning performance, or the offense jumping on All-Star Chris Sale and beating the White Sox 7-3, but for the Detroit Tigers this evening, Miguel Cabrera having to leave the game in the fifth inning will steal some of the headlines.

The Tigers are calling him day-to-day, but Miguel Cabrera was visibly uncomfortable as he walked off the field in the bottom of the fifth inning. A sore left hip flexor is apparently the source of the discomfort. Don Kelly entered the game as his replacement — and Ramon Santiago after than when Kelly shifted to the outfield — which serves as a reminder that the Tigers don’t have any other great options at the hot corner should Miggy have to sit out any length of time. The good news is that they’ll be able to whether a potential storm for a number of days, but not having the best hitter in the game is always worse than having the best hitter in the game. We’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.

Other than that though there wasn’t really anything to complain about in this contest. Scherzer’s two runs came via a pair of solo home runs, which isn’t a good sign given his history with the home run ball, but we can hardly balk at his overall quality of work. And speaking of balk, Chicago’s third run scored on a Bruce Rondon balk (the only run the bullpen has allowed in the last five games). Rondon also threw a wild pitch (that’s how the runner go to third in the first place), but his stuff was otherwise sharp. He ended the game on a strikeout of Adam Dunn on a 101 mph fastball.

Notes

• Victor Martinez had four singles to raise his slash line to .270/.323/.392. That’s more or less a league average slash line.
• Torii Hunter blasted his eighth home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh inning.
• Phil Coke pitched to one batter and nothing bad happened — he got him out!
• Hernan Perez reached base twice on fielding errors and came around to score both times.