Cabrera reaches 3,000-hit mark, Tigers rout Rockies

DETROIT (AP) — Miguel Cabrera homered for his 1,000th career hit. He homered for his 2,000th, too.

No. 3,000 didn't travel quite as far, at least not in distance. What this sharply grounded single did was elevate him even more among the greatest hitters in baseball history.

Cabrera needed only one at-bat Saturday to deliver his long-awaited milestone hit, quickly reaching the mark as the Detroit Tigers routed the Colorado Rockies 13-0 in the opener of a day-night doubleheader.

“I think I’m still dreaming," he said. "To be able to see 3,000 up there, pretty special.”

Cabrera became the 33rd player in major league history and first Venezuelan-born player to achieve the feat when he singled through the shift to right field. The hit came against fellow Venezuelan Antonio Senzatela and set off rousing cheers and chants at Comerica Park.

“When I saw the second baseman almost behind second base, I was like, ‘OK, you’ve got to shoot the ball that way,” he said.

Cabrera added a bases-loaded, two-run single in the sixth, then was pulled for a pinch-runner and drew another huge ovation as he trotted off.

He kept moving up the chart with a bloop single for hit No. 3,002 in the first inning of the nightcap.

Now in his 20th big league season, the 39-year-old Cabrera became just the seventh player with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. He joined an exclusive club with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.

Among those luminaries, only Cabrera, Aaron and Mays have a .300 career batting average.

“We just don't know if we're going to see another one in our baseball lifetime or our whole lifetime,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. “It's a small juncture of his Hall of Fame career. The next