BALTIMORE — Miguel Cabrera hit his 499th career home run in the fifth inning of the Detroit Tigers‘ 5-2 win against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.
Cabrera connected off Matt Harvey to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The homer drew some cheers from the crowd at Camden Yards, and Cabrera gave a little pump of his right fist when the ball cleared the wall in left-center field.
He also had two singles earlier in the game, plus a sacrifice fly in the sixth. He grounded out in the ninth in his final at-bat.
The Detroit slugger has 12 home runs this season. He hadn’t gone deep since Aug. 3. The Tigers have one more game on this road trip, although it’s a day game Thursday that Cabrera might sit out.
Cabrera, 38, is trying to become the 28th player in major league history — and the first Venezuelan — to reach 500 homers. His production has fallen off considerably in recent seasons. He hasn’t hit more than a dozen homers since 2017.
But Cabrera remains a star in Detroit as he chases this milestone and the 3,000-hit mark. He’s up to 2,950 hits.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.