Miguel Cabrera wins Triple Crown as Tigers beat KC, 1-0

In the midst of the Detroit Tigers shutting down the Kansas City Royals, 1-0 on the last day of the regular season, Miguel Cabrera became the first player to win the Triple Crown since 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski did it with the Boston Red Sox. Cabrera is also the first Tiger to win the Triple Crwon since Ty Cobb, way back in 1909 in the "Dead Ball Era" when he hit nine homeruns — all of them inside-the-park.

Cabrera became virtually assured of the Triple Crown when Josh Hamilton, his closest pursuer in the homerun race, went homerless in Texas’ meltdown loss to Oakland. Hamilton finished the regular season tied with former Tiger & current N.Y. Yankee Curtis Granderson with 43 homers, one behind Cabrera.

Cabrera locked up the RBI title days ago. He ended up with 139 — 11 more than the runner-up Hamilton. Plus, he basically wrapped up the third element of the Triple Crown, the batting title, when L.A. Angels rookie Mike Trout — the last man with a realistic chance to catch him — went 1-for-5 to drop seven points behind him. Cabrera beat Trout by four points, .330-.326.

Cabrera went 0-2 with a strikeout, then left in the 4th inning to a standing ovation from the Kansas City crowd. He finished the season leading the American League with a .330 batting average, 44 homeruns, and 139 RBI, making him one of only fifteen Triple Crown winners in all of baseball history.

Max Scherzer pitched four innings for the Tigers to test his physical readiness for the playoffs, giving up just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. Austin Jackson doubled in the game's only run putting the Tigers up 1-0 in the 5th inning.

Detroit finishes the season 88-74 as American League Central Division Champions and will now face the newly crowned AL West champion Oakland Athletics at Comerica Park this Saturday evening at 6 pm for Game 1 of the AL Divisional Series.