It took Miguel Cabrera five swings of the bat to better his home-run production for the entire month of August.

Cabrera got back on track with two home runs in a Tigers’ rout of the Indians and their ace starter, Corey Kluber.

Miguel Cabrera vs Inner-Half Pitches

In doing so, he passed Larry Walker and moved into a tie with Harold Baines for 61st all time with 384 home runs.

Perhaps more importantly, he snapped a career-long 27-game homerless drought and re-established the inner half of the plate as his domain.

Cabrera’s dominance is largely due to his ability to overpower balls pitched to that area. From 2011 to 2013, he hit 78 home runs against inner-half pitches. Only one other player was within 20 of his total, Mark Trumbo with 69.

But this season had been a different story. Cabrera had only one home run against an inner-half pitch in his last 78 games combined and 10 against them all season, less than half the total of major-league leader Josh Donaldson, who has 21.

Cabrera’s slugging percentage against inner-half pitches is .537. In each of the previous four seasons, he’s slugged .660 or better against them.

Cabrera’s issues actually got to the point where recently he’d become very gettable inside.

In three games against the White Sox over the weekend, Caberera saw 14 inner-half pitches, which resulted in him making eight outs, including four strikeouts.

Monday would be a different story. The Indians tried to come inside twice on Cabrera. Both pitches found the seats.