"In the third inning Wednesday night, the walks finally worked in Miguel Cabrera's favor.

Usually it works against him. Last season, he had more than twice as many intentional walks as any other American League player. This season, he has 12 intentional walks -- more than many AL teams have.

With one out in Wednesday's third inning, Minnesota right-hander Scott Baker walked No. 2 hitter Ramon Santiago. With Cabrera on deck, Baker walked No. 3 hitter Brennan Boesch on a full count.

The concept of the base on balls hadn't denied Cabrera an RBI opportunity. It had created one.

Cabrera swung and missed at a breaking ball. Then Baker threw something harder on 0-1, and Cabrera lined it over the fence in leftfield. He had provided the Tigers with their final three runs in a 4-2 win.

"I was telling the guys, 'We can win with walks as well as hits,' " Cabrera said. "If we work the count and make the pitchers throw strikes, we're going to be able to score runs."

The night's intentional walk went to Twins slugger Justin Morneau as he represented the potential tying run with two outs in the ninth. Manager Jim Leyland saw his decision work when Michael Cuddyer then grounded out against Jose Valverde to end the game. As Cabrera went to hold Morneau on first base after that intentional walk, he could have told him, "I know the feeling.""