Miguel Cabrera 500th Home Run

TORONTO — Miguel Cabrera historic with his teammates on the Detroit Tigers. He took a mantle phone call on the route. He paid tribute to his family, his squad and his native land.

Information technology was quite a 24-hour interval, even for one of baseball's near achieved sluggers.

Cabrera became the 28th major leaguer to hitting 500 dwelling house runs, reaching the milestone in the sixth inning Lord's day against the Toronto Blueish Jays.

The 38-twelvemonth-old Cabrera continued on a 1-1 pitch from left-hander Steven Matz, sending the ball over the scoreboard in right-center field. Measured at 400 feet, the homer tied it at i.

Many of the xiv,685 fans at Rogers Centre rose for a standing ovation as Cabrera rounded the bases. After celebrating with his teammates, he came out of the dugout to accept a curtain call, taking off his helmet and bowing to the crowd behind Detroit'due south dugout.

Cabrera, who won the Triple Crown and the first of back-to-back MVP awards in 2012, is the commencement Venezuelan to hit 500 homers. He is hoping to become the first hitter to reach 500 homers and 3,000 hits in the same flavour.

"It's something special for my country, for my family, to exist able to do this," he said later on Detroit's 5-3 victory. "I'm actually happy."

Miguel Cabrera celebrates after hitting his 500th home run.

Jeimer Candelario, who was on deck, was the showtime teammate to celebrate with Cabrera.

"When he hitting that ball, I knew something special was about to happen and history was virtually to happen," Candelario said. "For me, beingness a office of that is a approval. It helped us to win a ballgame, too."

Cabrera's 500th home run was hit No. 2,955 of his career, and he can achieve that iii,000 milestone this year, too, if he tin stay healthy and average 1 hit per game. Simply six players accept 3,000 hits and 500 homers: Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Eddie Murray.

His pursuit of these large numbers has go a bright spot for a Detroit team that finally seems to be emerging from a difficult rebuild, budgeted a .500 record.

Cabrera is the sixth player born outside the Us to attain 500 homers. He joins Pujols, Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, who reached the marker in 2015 and was the final to pull off the feat before Cabrera.

Miguel Cabrera receives a standing ovation from Blue Jays fans after hitting his 500th home run. — Miguel Cabrera receives a continuing ovation from Blue Jays fans afterwards hitting his 500th habitation run.

He is also the first player to reach the marker in a Tigers uniform.

"And so proud for him and his family, and a career accomplishment then rare yous may never get to be a part of this once again," director A.J. Hinch said. "Nosotros take no thought who the adjacent person can be to pass this big number."

In 2012, Cabrera became the first player in 45 years to win the Triple Crown by leading the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.

When Cabrera made his major league debut with the Marlins in 2003, he was but 20 years quondam. He helped them win the World Series that yr.

The Tigers acquired him in a trade with the Marlins in 2007, a year later on losing the World Series to St. Louis, in the hopes that he would aid them win a earth championship for the kickoff time since 1984.

Cabrera rounds the bases after hitting his 500th home run.

Even so, the Tigers have never won it all with the slugging superstar. They lost in the 2012 World Series to San Francisco and later in the decade went into a rebuilding mode that bottomed out with 310 losses between 2017-19.

Cabrera'southward hitting and his jovial on-field demeanor made him pop in Detroit, but his product has dipped significantly in contempo years as historic period and injuries caught up with him.

While other Tigers such as superstar pitcher Justin Verlander were traded away, Cabrera'southward failing value and huge contract made him difficult to motion. His 500th homer was his 13th this season, his highest total since 2017.

Although Cabrera was in hit distance of both the dwelling run and hit milestones when the season started, no one knew how those pursuits would go considering of his recent struggles at the plate. He homered on opening mean solar day in the snow, but past the All-Star pause, he had gone deep just seven times and there were doubts he could pull off the feat this twelvemonth.

He has picked upwards the pace since so, striking six home runs and reaching 500 with time to spare in 2021.

Cabrera is but behind Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, who ranks 27th on the career listing with 504 home runs.