A week ago, only the most devoted Detroit Tigers fans had ever heard of Quintin Berry.
Berry, though, got a shot when Austin Jackson couldn't bounce back from a muscle strain, and Berry's quickly emerged as a spark plug.
On Sunday, the 27-year-old rookie had a spectacular 15 minutes of baseball to help the Tigers beat the Twins 4-3.
Berry started the show in the bottom of the eighth inning. With the Twins up 3-2 and Alexi Casilla on third, Berry made one of the best catches seen by a Tigers outfielder in years — topping even the highlight-reel grabs by Curtis Granderson and Austin Jackson.
Jamey Carroll hit a sharp liner to straightaway center. After Berry took a second to read the ball, he started sprinting toward the wall. Just as the ball was about to sail over his head for a probable RBI triple, Berry dove directly away from the plate and caught the ball before crashing hard into the turf.
He didn't have much time to catch his breath. Berry led off the ninth inning with a single and stole second before trotting home on Miguel Cabrera's go-ahead homer.
The ninth-inning single was Berry's third hit of the game, and he's now hitting .381 in his week as Jackson's replacement. That's impressive for a guy who had never played in the majors and wasn't even on Detroit's 40-man roster before Jackson's injury.
The Tigers signed him as a minor-league free agent this winter after Cincinnati gave up on him, mainly to provide some speed for the Toledo Mud Hens. Instead, he's hitting leadoff and playing center field for the Tigers.
"We knew he had speed and that he could slap the ball around and make some things happen," Jim Leyland told FOX Sports Detroit after the game. "That's what he did today, plus he made a great catch that probably saved the game."
Until Berry caught Carroll's line drive, it looked like the Tigers were heading for another in a series of frustrating losses. They had left 10 more runners on base, grounded into three double plays — giving them nine for the three-game series in Minnesota — and hadn't scored a run since the first inning.
"This game was a nightmare for me," Leyland said. "We were leaving too many guys on again, and we weren't doing a good job of situational hitting.
"Luckily, Miggy hit the big one for us. We needed that."
Cabrera's first homer since May 15 means the Tigers head to Boston with a sweep of the Twins.
"It is hard to sweep anyone, so we're happy with that," Cabrera said. "Now we can go to Boston and have some fun at Fenway against some good pitchers."
Cabera had fallen behind Twins closer Matt Capps but blasted an 0-2 pitch over the centerfield fence.
"I've had some bad at-bats, and I've been struggling with men in scoring position," he said. "I was trying too hard.
"Today, I was trying to show some patience and put the ball in play. I got lucky that he left a pitch over the plate."
