Chips are up for nacho man Prince Fielder

Detroit Tigers' Prince Fielder is batting .284 with 24 home runs and 105 runs batted in, power numbers that rank among the league leaders in MLB this season. Carlos Osorio / AP Photo

At this point, it has become a virtual certainty that Detroit Tigers will advance to baseball’s American League play-offs, which begin next week.

All-Star infielder Prince Fielder is making sure that he does not run out of gas along the way.

On a play that went viral nearly as fast as it happened, the lumbering first baseman tried and failed to chase down a pop fly that was hit near the right-field foul line in Thursday’s game against Seattle Mariners at Detroit’s Comerica Park.

But it was what happened next that drew some of the biggest laughs of the Major League Baseball season.

As the foul ball landed just out of his reach a few feet away, Fielder’s considerable momentum carried him to the railing along grandstand seats, where a male fan wearing a Tigers jersey was holding a tray of nacho chips. Fielder, charitably listed at 275 pounds (125kg), grabbed a chip from the man’s plate and wolfed it down, while the latter was distracted and checking to see where the ball landed after caroming into the seats behind him.

Without so much as a smirk, Fielder, the son of former major-league star Cecil Fielder, trundled back to his position, eventually wiping his face on the sleeve of his jersey.

Sufficiently fortified, Fielder in the seventh inning drove in the tying run and scored the eventual game-winner in the team’s 5-4 victory.

Entering play Saturday, with a week left in the regular season, the Tigers had a six-game lead in the American League Central standings, thanks in part to Fielder, 29, long one of the game’s best sluggers.

– Agencies