| Jim Leyland makes all the right moves and Miguel Cabrera looks like a winner. (Getty Images) |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Miguel Cabrera practically had the Triple Crown sewn up entering the season's final game Wednesday, but that didn't stop Tigers manager Jim Leyland from doing his homework and making sure nothing was left to chance.
"Truthfully, and this sounds crazy, but this was the toughest game I've had to manage in my career," Leyland said after Cabrera's Triple Crown and a 1-0 victory were in the Tigers' possession. "It was more nerve-wracking than Game 7 of the 1997 World Series."
In a brilliant night of managing, Leyland struck the perfect balance between doing what was best for his team and respecting the game and the competition.
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Cabrera entered the night ahead of the Angels' Mike Trout in batting average, .331 to .324.
He entered the night ahead of the Yankees' Curtis Granderson in home runs, 44-41.
Texas' Josh Hamilton was closest to Cabrera in homers at 43. But the Rangers had already lost to the Athletics earlier in the day.
Trout's Angels started their game in Seattle about 90 minutes before the Tigers started, while Granderson's Yankees started about an hour ahead of the Tigers.
So while Leyland was managing the game and paying especially close attention to starter Max Scherzer as the Tigers tried to get him tuned up for the playoffs and to Austin Jackson as the Tigers tried to preserve his .300 batting average (they did), he positioned media relations man Brian Britten in the hallway a few steps behind the dugout with a laptop.
All for the purpose of monitoring Cabrera's Triple Crown status while the slugger was in the game and for picking the right moment for removing him.
"I had a sheet with so many stats on it, it probably was worse than taking the SAT test," Leyland said. "Brian was on top of everything. I got the rundown between innings, and I even ran back there sometimes between pitches to see if Trout was hitting or if Grandy was hitting."
Trout was hit by a pitch in his first at-bat, then grounded out, but followed that with a double and a single. The single came in the eighth inning of an eventual 12-0 loss, raising his average to .326 but making it clear that that would be his final plate appearance of the evening.
Shortly after that, Leyland sent Ramon Santiago to play third base with two out in the bottom of the fourth, allowing Cabrera to exit to a classy standing ovation.
"It's funny," Leyland said. "The thing I was most nervous about ended up being the thing I was least nervous about. I was most nervous about Trout.
"But I had no idea I'd be panicking about Granderson maybe hitting four home runs. But I was."
Granderson drilled his 42nd in the second inning against Boston and hit his 43rd in the seventh to pull to within one homer of tying Cabrera.
A tie for home run leadership still would have given Cabrera the Triple Crown. It became a non-issue, anyway, when Melky Mesa hit for Granderson in the eighth.
"I think we did it the right way, the classy way," Leyland said. "We got it so the whole nation could see him hit, and then so the whole nation could see him taken out.
"If we could have done it any better, I don't know how we could have done it. Nothing is ever perfect, but this was as close to perfect as we probably could have had."
And had Granderson snuck another homer or two in after Cabrera made his exit?
"At the end of the day, when I made the move," Leyland said with a gleam in his eye. "If Granderson hits four homers in this game, then [the Triple Crown] is not supposed to happen."