Yankees make correct baseball play by walking Miguel Cabrera, avoid giving up 3,000th hit; Tigers make them pay one batter later

Kevin Skiver

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Yankees make correct baseball play by walking Miguel Cabrera, avoid giving up 3,000th hit; Tigers make them pay one batter later image

How can you not be romantic about baseball? Apparently pretty easily, if you're Aaron Boone.

With Miguel Cabrera chasing 3,000 hits and 0 for 3 on the day Thursday afternoon against the Yankees, he took the batter's box in the bottom of the eighth inning with runners on second and third fully prepared to try to make history in a high-leverage situation. With the Tigers up 1-0, Boone and Yankees took the bat out of Cabrera's hands by intentionally walking him to load the bases, to the utter horror of the Detroit crowd at Comerica Park.

Cabrera, of course, took the base. Much to the chagrin of the Detroit faithful. The Tigers' Twitter account says it all.

The decision, while it made perfect baseball sense, immediately backfired on the Yankees. On the ensuing at-bat, Austin Meadows blooped a laugher into centerfield to score two and put the Tigers up 3-0.

The crowd was energized in the ninth inning, starting raucous "Yankees suck" chants throughout the stands.

It's a decision befitting the Evil Empire of Baseball, but Cabrera wanted to remind fans why they were there. As he came off the field, he tried (unsuccessfully) to placate them.

Both managers were measured after the game in talking about the decision.

"We've got a lot of respect for Meadows too, behind him, you know the left-on-left," Boone said after the game, per Marly Rivera. "The matchup, I just liked it a little better in that situation and it came down to a baseball call for me there and, you know, tough decision and I thought [Lucas Luetge] executed a pitch, got the soft contact, but you know dumped it in there."

Tough call, but one I had to make.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch also understood Boone's decision.

"Zero doubt [Cabrera would get walked]," he said postgame. "[Boone's] obligation is to his own team and their chances of winning, and he has the matchup behind [Cabrera] that he wanted, so you could see it coming."

I know our fans responded accordingly, but I totally get it.

For his part, Cabrera wasn't sweating it. When asked if he was upset about the walk postgame, he responded: "No, my on-base percentage went up," per Jeff Riger. He added jokingly after he won't be doing a pregame interview for Friday's game against the Rockies, since he went 0 for 3 Thursday.

While baseball fans can't continue to pick and choose which unwritten rules they like and dislike, the good news for the Tigers is they'll be staying at home for a three-game set with the Rockies over the weekend. If Cabrera hits No. 3,000 at home this will be a footnote in his chase, and the Yankees will have avoided being a trivia question in the future when it's asked who Cabrera had his 3,000th hit against.

Kevin Skiver

Kevin Skiver Photo

Kevin Skiver has been a content producer at Sporting News since 2021. He previously worked at CBS Sports as a trending topics writer, and now writes various pieces on MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and college sports. He enjoys hiking and eating, not necessarily in that order.