DETROIT -- It's the year of the triple and the Tigers had a trifecta of unbelievable performances Friday night.
If you like pitching, hitting and defense, the Tigers (32-29) showed off all three in a 4-0 shutout of the Cleveland Indians (28-32).
First, there was David Price.
Price was coming off a complete game win in Chicago against the White Sox in which he allowed just one run while walking two and striking out 11.
But he out-did that performance, holding the Indians to just seven hits while striking out eight.
"Always look at a my chance to go pitch, for an opportunity to do something special," Price said. "Tonight, was very special, absolutely, with the defensive plays I was able to get, from (Jose) Iglesias, obviously, and Ian Kinsler. Everybody did their part tonight, and it's fantastic."
Price did not walk a batter and threw just 93 pitches, 67 for strikes, his first "Greg Maddux game."
"It might be one of my most memorable games in my career," catcher James McCann said. "When you look up at the board, and going into the ninth inning, he hasn't even thrown 90 pitches, it's unbelievable. I don't really have words to describe how good he was."
Ryan Raburn, the former Tiger, came in with decent success against Price, 7-for-21 with a home run.
But Raburn flew out twice and struck out once.
"Every pitch, fastball, breaking balls, had so much life," Raburn said. "And it was almost never in the middle of the plate. Just about everything on the corners."
While Price was hitting his spots, the Tigers weren't hitting too much against hard-throwing Danny Salazar.
At least they weren't until the sixth inning.
Anthony Gose and Rajai Davis singled, then Kinsler struck out.
In stepped Miguel Cabrera, serial abuser of Indians pitching.
Cabrera hit Salazar's 93 mile-per-hour fastball so far that it hit the camera well in deep center field.
"It's not often you see a home run to center that you know is gone off the bat at Comerica Park and I think everyone knew it was gone off the bat," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, the ball traveled 452 feet, which is Cabrera's longest home run since May 19, 2013.
"It's a joke. It's a joke," third baseman Nick Castellanos said. "I can't hit a ball that far from second base. It's just Miggy being Miggy."
McCann was equally in awe of Cabrera as he was of Price.
"It's not right. It's not fair," McCann said. "I mean, there's hundreds of baseball players that can't hit it that far. I can only imagine what fans think. I wish I could hit it that far."
Among those wishing they could? Cabrera's former teammate.
"He's impressive, man," Raburn said. "To be a good of a hitter as he is, hit balls like that and hit .330 ... Man, I tell you what, I'm sure jealous."
Cabrera also had an RBI double to right-center field that was hit just as hard.
Price has been known to show some power in batting practice but not in a game so far.
"To go over the camera well? He has power to all fields, and he shows it in BP every day," Price said. "He'll hit a home run to right, then go right-center, center, left-center and left. He'll do it all in five swings. Nobody else in baseball, really, contains that power that he has. He's special."
The Tigers' defense turned a special performance of its own, although it was overshadowed by Price and Cabrera.
Known for hitting into double plays, the Tigers turned a season-best four Friday night.
"We just tried to make some plays," Iglesias said. "DP did an amazing job for us tonight and we got his back defensively, as well. We were able to make some good plays in the right moment, and get some momentum for the team."
Price credited his defense with helping him not only keep the game scoreless, but keep his pitch count low.
"To get eight outs on four pitches, that's always huge, and that's always a game-changer," Price said.
Two were started by Kinsler and two were started by Iglesias, none more impressive than the second one that Carlos Santana grounded into in the sixth inning.
"Ridiculous," McCann said. "Off the bat, I thought it was a base hit and I'm already starting to game plan for the next hitter, how we were going to get a ground ball to get out of it. Then the next thing I know, Kinsler's whipping it to first base and we got a double play."
Even Ausmus, who spent 18 years in the big leagues and has seen pretty much everything, was impressed.
"You want to rank things, that might be the best double play I've seen turned," Ausmus said.
For the 35,379 in attendance at Comerica Park Friday night, it might be the best game by the Tigers this season.
NOTES: The Tigers optioned right-handed pitcher Angel Nesbitt to Triple-A Toledo to make room for Justin Verlander, who is coming off the DL to start Saturday.
