SPORTS

Ausmus in a bind trying to find rest for a weary Cabrera

Chris McCosky
The Detroit News
Miguel Cabrera reacts after Brett Lawrie hit an RBI-single during the fifth inning Monday night.

Chicago – Miguel Cabrera looked bone-weary as the 12-inning marathon dragged on Monday night.

“Everyone was fatigued in that game,” manager Brad Ausmus said.

True. But Cabrera has appeared physically sluggish in recent weeks, especially later in games. He doubled and singled in his first two at-bats on Sunday, then struck out in his last two at-bats. Same thing on Monday. He doubled, then tapped out to the mound, walked twice, then struck out twice and bounced meekly to second in his final three at-bats.

In his last six games, he is 1 for 9 with five strikeouts after the seventh inning.

It’s not a new phenomenon. According to Baseball Reference, he is hitting .235 from the seventh through the ninth inning. For his career, Cabrera has hit .333 in the seventh, .300 in the eighth and .274 in the ninth.

Another possible sign that he’s fatigued is that he’s being overpowered by pitchers more often than he has in his career. He’s hitting .204 against power pitching (fastballs in the mid- to upper-90s), with 16 strikeouts in 59 plate appearances.

For his career, he’s hit .278 against power pitching.

Castellanos slowly gains Ausmus’ trust on defense

Ausmus wasn’t ready to attribute those numbers to anything specific. But he didn’t dispute the fact that Cabrera may need a break.

“He’s another guy we need to find an off-day for,” he said. “It’s tough with Victor (Martinez) out. But he certainly could use an off-day. Probably on this road trip somewhere I will just have to bite the bullet and give him an off-day. It’s as simple as that.”

Or is it?

“Well, if he goes three-for-three with three home runs today, it won’t be tomorrow,” Ausmus said.

There are some other unusual statistical trends from Cabrera.

* He’s hitting .217 on the road (.310 lifetime).

* He’s hitting .226 in losses (.269 lifetime).

* He’s hitting .208 with runners in scoring position (.313 lifetime).

Playing it safe

Cameron Maybin, who batted seven times in the 12-inning loss Monday, was held out of the lineup Tuesday.

Maybin’s left wrist became agitated last week, to the point where he needed a cortisone shot and missed two games. Ausmus doesn’t want a repeat of that.

“Since he’s been back he’s played all the time and the wrist started acting up,” he said. “Sitting him is two-fold: We have to get (Andrew) Romine in there once in a while, and I’m looking for spots to get Maybin out so it doesn’t act up.

“We want to avoid missing three days and getting a (cortisone) shot.”

Romine started in center field. Nick Castellanos batted fourth and was the DH. Jose Iglesias moved up to the No. 2 hole and Mike Aviles played third.

Delving deeper into machinations of Tigers’ wild loss

Not suicidal

It was a big play at the time and it was a thing of beauty.

Jose Iglesias, on a 2-1 count, executed a text-book suicide squeeze to give the Tigers a two-run lead in the ninth inning Monday.

But don’t look for that play to be called too often. Ausmus isn’t much of a fan.

“For me, I think it’s a good way to try and pad a lead late in a game, but you don’t do it a lot,” he said. “There’s only certain guys you can do it with. Really, on every time there’s only a couple-three guys you might try it with and it may only happen once or twice a year.”

Tigers on ESPN too

ESPN has picked up the Tigers-Indians game July 4 at Progressive Field. It will also be broadcast on FSD, and the game time remains 7:10 p.m.

Twitter @cmccosky