Miguel Cabrera was asked last week how badly he wants to win the Triple Crown.
"You know," he said. "I'll leave that up to God."
Yes, well, Joe Mauer should have something to do with it, too, and the Twins catcher and Tigers third baseman will have a head-to-head matchup of sorts this weekend at Target Field.
The Twins and Tigers will hook up for the 2012 season's penultimate series with much on the line. Not only does first-place Detroit enter with a one-game lead on Chicago in the American League Central through Wednesday, Sept. 27, games, but Cabrera comes in as the front-runner in the American League MVP race and with the best chance to win the first major league Triple Crown in 45 years.
Cabrera, 29, leads the AL in batting average (.326) and runs batted in (133) and trails Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton in home runs, 43-42. No player has been this close this late since Boston's Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in 1967, when he hit .326 with 121 RBIs and tied the Twins' Harmon Killebrew with a league-high 44 homers.
This time, the Twin in the way is Mauer, who enters the series batting .323, within spitting distance of Cabrera, who went 1 for 4 in a 5-4 victory over Kansas City on Thursday. And though Mauer had a rough day Wednesday against Yankees ace CC Sabathia, going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, he's hitting .394 (28 for 71) in September.
Already unflappable, Mauer won batting titles in 2006 (.347), 2008 (.328) and 2009 (.365), so he knows the drill. He went 2 for 4 on the final day of the 2006 season to win his first, and he swears he's not scouring the boxscores to see what Cabrera is doing.
"Nothing's really changed," Mauer said. "I'm going out there trying to win every game and treating every at-bat like I would normally. It's kind of fun to see a guy like that chasing a Triple Crown. He's having a great year, but his numbers in the other years aren't far off, either.