By Mitchell Gatzke, Icon sports columnist
X-rays taken on Miguel Cabrera's face yesterday revealed a small fracture under the slugger's right eye. It appears he will be out for a little while in an attempt to heal both the fractured bone and the cut that took stitches to close.
Cabrera's transition from first to third base was going just fine, granted he didn't do anything spectacular, but he was making all the routine plays. That is until a hot shot ground ball off the bat of Hunter Pence took a terrible hop and hit Cabrera in the face.
The ESPN broadcasters and Tigers teammates alike expressed immediate concern because it appeared the ball had struck last year's American League batting champ directly in the eye.
The ball had actually struck Cabrera's sunglasses which, shattered and cut his skin. This is good and bad, yes, the glasses cut his face but had he not been wearing them, it most likely would have been a direct hit, causing much more structural damage to a very sensitive and important part of the body.
Cabrera will be reevaluated in a week to make sure everything is healing properly. Hopefully there are no setbacks in his recovery process as Opening Day in Detroit is rapidly approaching. Tune in to ESPN on April 5 to watch the Tigers, hopefully including Cabrera, take on the Boston Red Sox.
