Ken Blaze – USA TODAY Sports
The stage was set. Trailing by two runs with two outs in the top of the ninth inning and a runner on second base, Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera, the best hitter of our generation, stepped up to the plate with New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, the best closer of all time, on the mound in what could be the final showdown between the two titans of baseball. You knew what was about to take place when Yankees manager Joe Girardi chose not to walk Cabrera. You see, it doesn’t matter who is pitching, you don’t pitch to Cabrera with the game on the line.
Like a scene out of a movie, Rivera used his cutter to all but obliterate Cabrera’s left leg, using his sinkers to perfection and making Cabrera foul two balls of his left knee and shin. Cabrera was limping badly. Tigers manager Jim Leyland came out with his head trainer with obvious concern for his moneymaker player, the Tigers’ version of Superman. But Cabrera, after painfully limping around, sent them away. Nothing was going to stop him from this showdown; nothing was going to stop him from showing Girardi and Rivera who was the best in the stadium.
So it was set, a 1-2 count between the two biggest titans of baseball. A showdown that may be the last between the two, and the entire game was on the line and neither of them would have it any other way. With one powerful swing and a simple flick of the bat, it was over. Cabrera had homered to the deepest part of the ballpark, and all Rivera could do was smile. He knew he did everything he wanted to do in the at bat and it still wasn’t enough. Cabrera had won the battle.
It’s almost an insult these days when a manager doesn’t walk Cabrera. It doesn’t matter who is the pitcher, and it doesn’t matter where the game is being played, all that matters is Cabrera is going to win any showdown you want to give him. Girardi found that out the hard way on Friday night that while your closer has spent his life winning battles and never backing down to anyone, Cabrera is not just anyone.
