Báez keeps coming through for Tigers as '25 revival continues
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DETROIT -- Troy Melton was warming in the Tigers' bullpen near the left-field corner of Comerica Park when Javier Báez turned on Gabe Speier’s slider and sent it down the line in the fifth inning. His first reaction was like everybody else's.
“I thought it was gone,” Melton said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, here we go.’”
Detroit third-base coach Joey Cora, whose emphatic waves demonstrate the Tigers’ baserunning aggressiveness, was nearly in fair territory midway down the third-base line as the ball soared toward the foul pole. Kerry Carpenter ran from the on-deck circle to the home-plate circle, his right arm extended.
Everyone figured this was Javy’s moment. Given his history, it’s hard to dispute.
“He just rises to the moment,” manager A.J. Hinch said after the Tigers' 9-3 win over the Mariners in Game 4 of the ALDS on Wednesday, “and the near-miss homer is always that feeling of what was barely missed. But Javy loves these big games, these big crowds, these opportunities to do something great.”
As the ball veered foul, Cora put his hands on his helmet. Báez, for his part, never got out of his swing.
“I got my pitch,” Báez said, “and I got a little too big, and it went foul.”
It looked like destiny denied. It was merely delayed.
In another year, Báez might have followed one big swing with another, maybe chased a pitch too far. Speier seemed to have that possibility in mind when he threw his next pitch in the dirt.
“It's not easy, honestly, when you hit a home run foul,” Báez said. “Probably 90 percent [of the time], you strike out. But I kept my plan and kind of stayed through the middle, and that's exactly what happened and what I was trying to do.”
What followed was a look at the more pragmatic postseason Javy, the contact hitter who’s just as happy with a short swing and a clutch RBI single as he is with a mammoth homer. By laying off the slider in the dirt, he led Speier to challenge him with a 94.9 mph fastball on the outer edge. Báez not only connected, he centered it, sending a sharp ground ball through the middle to bring Jahmai Jones around third.
“I kept my plan to keep it simple,” Báez said. “He challenged me with the fastball, and I was ready for it.”
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It wasn’t a go-ahead homer, but the game-tying single got no less of a roar from a Comerica Park crowd that once booed Báez in past years. Now, the love for the All-Star renaissance has made his name almost as popular of a chant as Jared Goff -- OK, maybe not that popular.
The crowd quickly picked it up: “Ja-vy! Ja-vy!”
“I think that makes me more nervous than the boos, honestly,” said Báez, his two young sons at his side on the podium following Detroit's season-saving victory.
Báez has become a catalyst for the Tigers this postseason. He’s 9-for-26 with five RBIs, one off of Spencer Torkelson’s team lead. His play at shortstop has been an X-factor in Detroit's overall defense. His cat-quick tag on Guardians All-Star José Ramírez to end an eighth-inning rally in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series in Cleveland is a big reason why the Tigers are here. His ability to stay disciplined when the moment calls for it and put a productive ball in play could be a big factor for Detroit in Game 5 Friday night.
After he had to watch the Tigers’ run last postseason from the sidelines following hip surgery, it’s a well-deserved moment.
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“It's very rewarding to watch him play with some joy,” Hinch said. “He's had to endure a lot, whether it's the frustration at the beginning of his Tiger tenure, to the injury and missing out on what was an incredible season last year, to this year, the ups and downs, the All-Star nod, to scuffling a little bit in the second half, to even [falling] out of the lineup and getting pinch-hit for, to now being a huge part of the bottom half of our order to roll the lineup forward. …
“So our best team has him doing some pretty impactful things, and I know the work that goes into it. I know how much it matters, and that makes it even more rewarding.”
Also rewarding: Báez got his home run after all, one inning after his foul drive. And when Eduard Bazardo hung a slider over the plate, Báez didn’t have to watch it down the line. The ball screamed into the left-field seats as the fans responded in kind.
“I just try to control myself,” Báez said. “As you guys know, I've got a big swing, so I just try to do as sure as I can and control my emotions during the moment.”
It punctuated his first playoff game with a hit, an RBI and a stolen base since the 2018 NL Wild Card Game (not a series then) between the Cubs and Rockies.
He could have more in store.