Juan Francisco Socks a Pair as Braves Go 12-1; Miguel Cabrera Leads Detroit to 1st Place in AL Central

Players of the Day for Tuesday, April 16, 2013

American League

Miguel Cabrera

With their 6-2 victory at Seattle and Kansas City's 6-3 loss at Atlanta, the Detroit Tigers took over sole possession of first place in the AL Central.

Last year's MVP and triple crown winner, Miguel Cabrera provided the bulk of the tigers' offense, singling in the game's first run in the first inning, then erasing a 2-1 Seattle lead with a two-run homer in the fifth. Cabrera got his third hit of the day in the seventh, singling home Austin Jackson with an insurance tally.

Cabrera's homer was his second of the year, his 3-for-5 effort raising his batting average to .345. His four RBI upped his total to 17 on the season, the third highest total in the AL behind teammate Prince Fielder and Baltimore's Chris Davis, both of whom have 19.

Detroit leads the Royals by one game in the division and have two games remaining in Seattle before heading down the coast to play the Angels.

National League

Juan Francisco

In Tuesday's 6-3 win over the Royals, Braves' hitters produced nine hits, five of them going over the fences for solo home runs.

Justin Upton blasted his major league-leading eighth of the season, sandwiched in between bombs by Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla in the eighth inning, the Braves going back-to-back-to-back off Royals' reliever Kelvin Herrera, putting the game away with four runs in the inning.

The other runs scored by Atlanta came off the bat of Juan Francisco, who touched off solo shots in the second and seventh innings, his second blast tying the game at 2-2.

Francisco's two homers were his second and third of the season, helping Atlanta to baseball's best record. At 12-1, they lead the NL East by a whopping 4 1/2 games over the Nationals. Miami, which has begun the season with a 3-11 mark, are already 9 1/2 games off the pace.