Miguel Cabrera
Miguel Cabrera will hit fourth Tuesday night against the Chicago White Sox. Brad Ausmus said that's because he wanted to get Rajai Davis into the top part of the lineup due to his success against White Sox starter Jose Quintana.
(AP File Photo)
DETROIT -- Miguel Cabrera has batted in the cleanup spot a handful of times this season. But tonight will be the first time he does it in a home game.
Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has Cabrera batting cleanup Tuesday night in the series opener against the Chicago White Sox. But that change has more to do with Rajai Davis than it does Cabrera, according to Ausmus.
"That has more to do with Raj has kind of done against Quintana," Ausmus said. "It's more of a matchup issue."
Davis is 8 for 20 (.400) with two doubles and a home run in his career against White Sox starter Jose Quintana.
Ausmus has been using Austin Jackson regularly in the leadoff spot, so he simply inserted Davis into the second spot in the lineup and slid Ian Kinsler, Cabrera and Victor Martinez down one spot.
Four times this season, Ausmus slid Davis into the top part of the lineup and hit Cabrera in the fourth spot. But in each of those instances, the Tigers were playing an interleague game on the road. Ausmus likes to use Davis in the ninth spot so he and Jackson are batting back to back, but he was unable to do that in those games and still insert the pitcher into the ninth spot in the order.
While Ausmus was explaining the move, Cabrera was giving him a hard time while sitting a few feet away in the dugout.
"It's because he's only hitting .309," Cabrera said, pretending to be Ausmus. "I've got to do something because he's not doing anything. I've got to do a different lineup so we can score more."
Someone suggested to Cabrera that there might be more runners on base this way.
"Yes, please," Cabrera said.
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