Sawyer Gipson-Long the star, Miguel Cabrera the hero in Tigers' extra-inning win

Anaheim, Calif. — They gave Miguel Cabrera a massive surfboard before the game, part of his retirement tribute at Angels Stadium. They also gave him a gift RBI single early in the game on a ball misplayed in center field.

The Tigers' future Hall-of-Famer, who probably played his last game in Anaheim Saturday, showed his appreciation by lining an RBI single to right field in the top of the 10th inning that scored the free runner from second base and gave the Tigers' a 5-4 win over the Angels.

"Having Miggy up at that point is pretty incredible," Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. "Because he's going to take a shot to drive him in to the right side and if not, he's going to move the runner over. That's how he was raised in this game. We can all learn something from an experienced hitter who knows how to conduct an at-bat that's going to be a win-win for him.

"That's baseball. And that's how he's been raised and in a big moment you can rely on him to do the right thing."

The two hits bring Cabrera's hit total to 3,165, one shy of tying Adrian Beltre for 16th all-time.

Presenting him the surfboard before the game was Angels manager Phil Nevin, Mike Trout, five other Angels players and Cabrera's friend and hero, Albert Pujols.

"That was a nice surprise," Cabrera said. "I think I was more excited to see Pujols than I was for the surfboard (laughs). ... It was nice to get that win. But we want to finish the games in nine innings."

The Tigers were one strike from doing just that. They took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth having limited the Angels to two hits. But Jared Walsh hit a two-run homer off Alex Lange and then, on a 2-2 fastball with two outs, Brett Phillips tied the score with another home run over the wall in right field.

"The Phillips fastball was tough with the chance for a chase there," Hinch said. "But he didn't chase early in the count and it's always easy to go to pitch selection when someone hits the ball out of the ballpark. But it was the wrong spot at the wrong time to the wrong hitter and he made us pay."

Cabrera's heroics rescued the game and right-hander Will Vest, who hasn't allowed a run in nine outings, closed it out, striking out Eduardo Escobar and Zach Neto, then getting Brandon Drury on a bullet liner to center that Matt Vierling raced back and caught on the warning track.

But none of that should relegate the performance of rookie right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long to a footnote.

"No, that was awesome," Cabrera said. "He did a really good job today. He's got electric stuff and he gave us the opportunity to win the game."

It was a heck of an encore after winning his major-league debut last week. Gipson-Long struck out 11 hitters in five innings.

"I looked up and he had 10 strikeouts in, like, 4.2 innings," said second baseman Zack Short, whose 400-foot, three-run homer in the second inning gave Gipson-Long an early cushion. "Then he gets 11. He's so prepared, though. I see him writing in his notebook. And I don't think it's over-stimulating his brain. I think it's just how he gets prepared and what he attack plan is and he just sticks to it.

"It's pretty impressive."

BOX SCORE: Tigers 5, Angels 4 (10)

Gipson-Long became the first Tigers pitcher since Jack Morris in 1977, and the third in club history, to punch out 10 or more hitters in one of his first two career starts. Ralph Comstock was the first to do it in 1913. The 11 strikeouts was a season-high for any Tigers pitcher this season.

And he did it in five innings, 20 batters.

"I'm just blessed to be out here healthy and throwing strikes," Gipson-Long said. "That's the name of the game. Carson (Kelly, catcher) did a really good job calling the game and giving me confidence out there. I was getting ahead and throwing my best stuff to those guys. It was working out pretty well."

The Angels only put six balls in play against him and managed two hits, both by rookie Nolan Schanuel. He singled in the first and homered in the third inning.

Everybody else was flailing.

Ten of the 11 strikeouts were on swinging third strikes. The Angels took 39 swings and missed on 23 of them. It was a masterful performance, with Kelly expertly mixing sliders, change-ups, sinkers and four-seamers to a right-handed heavy lineup.

Gipson-Long showed no fear throwing change-ups to the six right-handed hitters. He threw 20 change-ups and got 10 swinging strikes on 12 swings.

"I threw like one or two change-ups the first time through the order and then I threw it a lot the next couple times through," he said. "I think for anybody, being able to hide a pitch like that, it makes it hard (on hitters) once you bring it back out. I got ahead and I was throwing my best stuff in the zone.

"If I don't have to use a pitch, that's better for me the next time through."

He came into the game throwing sinkers (93-95 mph) and sliders. He got nine whiffs on 15 swings with the slider and six called strikes with the sinker.

"He continued to go where the swings and misses were," Hinch said. "Twenty-three swings and misses is a lot at this level, especially for a guy in his second start. To stay with the things that were getting him to leverage was pretty awesome to see."

All six of his outs in the third and fourth innings were strikeouts. He struck out the side in the fourth, getting six swings-and-misses.

It was almost surreal how overmatched most of the Angels hitters were.

"The hitters are really good on the Angels," Gipson-Long said. "They have a lot of young talent, a lot of guys who are going to have really good careers. You have to respect that. These guys are really good hitters. I think having that game plan helped us, just mixing up speeds and executing."

It was a memorable night for the Tigers’ Tyler Nevin, too. Playing against his father for just the second time in the big leagues, he doubled, walked, singled and scored a run. It could've been even better. He was robbed of a home run in the 10th by a leaping catch at the wall by Phillips.

"All's well that ends well," Hinch said.

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @cmccosky