One and gone: The 13 pitchers Miguel Cabrera owned in one at-bat
By Kevin Henry
On his way to nearing the 3,000-hit milestone, Miguel Cabrera has tortured a multitude of pitchers during his 20-year career with the Florida Marlins and the Detroit Tigers. However, there are 13 pitchers who are in a special category all their own … and it’s one to which they likely wish they didn’t belong.
These are the 13 MLB pitchers who faced Miguel Cabrera just once in their career and gave up a home run in that one at-bat.
Looking back through the pages of Baseball-Reference.com’s Stathead tool, it’s fascinating to see the number of pitchers who have gone against Cabrera during his storied career. However, there are just 13 who have faced him in one official at-bat and watched as Cabrera took their pitch out of the park (just one of the 502 career home runs Cabrera has heading into Saturday’s doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies).
The oddity on the Miguel Cabrera one-and-gone home run list
Let’s start the look with an oddity on the list. That would be Cabrera facing Cleveland’s Alex White on April 30, 2011. Technically, Cabrera and White faced off three times in that game, but White intentionally walked Cabrera in the first and fifth innings. The only time White did pitch to him? Cabrera took a 1-0 offering over the center field wall for a solo homer.
White’s ability to avoid Cabrera worked out, however, as Cleveland earned a 3-2 win.
The only Miguel Cabrera one-and-gone grand slam
On September 15, 2007, the Florida Marlins paid a visit to Coors Field to face the Colorado Rockies. Unknown to the Rockies at that time, starting the next night, the team would catch fire and win 11 consecutive games as part of what would be a “Rocktober” run to the World Series.
However, this night belonged to Cabrera.
In the top of the sixth inning, Rockies reliever Juan Morillo would enter the game with the Rockies trailing 5-1. Morillo would hit a batter, walk another, and give up a single to load the bases for Cabrera with two outs. On a 2-1 pitch, Cabrera would send a towering shot into the Denver night, boosting Florida’s lead to 9-1 and ending Morillo’s outing.
Morillo would not pitch again that season for the Rockies, and throw just three more innings over the next two seasons, splitting time between Colorado and the Minnesota Twins.