The Twins thought they had a choice. Actually, all they had was a trap.
With Miguel Cabrera at the plate in a scoreless game, with two outs and first base open, Ron Gardenhire weighed his options and made a perfectly sane, reasonable decision: Avoid the Triple Crown winner who kills his starter. Pitch to the lefthanded hitter who has a history of meekness against him.
On paper, perhaps, the right call. But in the batter's box, it turns out Prince Fielder takes these decisions personally.
Fielder clubbed a Scott Diamond curveball off the right-field wall, driving home the first two of four quick Tigers runs Friday and sending Detroit to a 4-0 victory over the Twins at Target Field.
"We all know how dangerous it is — the guy behind [Cabrera] is a great hitter," Gardenhire said of Fielder. "One guy's hitting .400 against lefties, the next guy's hitting .370. Scottie had good numbers against Fielder, but he's so dangerous, he's so strong. He leaves a curveball up and [Fielder] bangs it against the wall out there."
Fielder stepped into the batter's box 2-for-16 against Diamond. But it turns out, the more relevant statistic was this one: Walking Cabrera to get to Fielder makes the cleanup hitter really angry. In his last 21 plate appearances when Fielder steps in behind a Cabrera walk, he is 12-for-19 with 16 RBI. The choice, in other words: Pitch to Cabrera, who leads the league in hitting with runners in scoring position, or pitch to a guy hitting .632 after a walk.
"I thought I made some decent pitches," Diamond said. "I knew if I executed, I'd be OK. But he hit a pretty good pitch," a 2-0 curveball that hung high and inside, allowing Fielder to turn on it.
Two pitches later, Victor Martinez knocked a double over Clete Thomas' head in center field. And Jhonny Peralta sent the next pitch to the wall in left-center, completing a three-double outburst that spoiled what had been a tremendous performance by Diamond. The lefthander retired 16 of the first 18 hitters he faced and seemed to be cruising.
