DETROIT -- Max Clark was running like crazy, reaching a near-elite sprint speed of 29.8 feet per second to try to catch up with Teoscar Hernández’s ninth-inning drive to left-center, when the Tigers center fielder heard a hissing sound. He knew instantly what it meant.
Javy was coming.
“He taught me: We all do the hiss-hiss-hiss to get each other’s [attention], and to hear each other from the infield to the outfield,” Clark said. “We started doing that in the outfield when you get close to somebody, because it’s the only thing that you can hear and identify without a fan saying, ‘I got it,’ or without a fan saying, ‘Ball, ball, ball.’”
Javier Báez has played enough center field over the past two seasons to know the importance of letting the center fielder take charge. He has respected Clark’s range since his callup to Detroit a month ago, both from shortstop and from left. But he also knew Clark was positioned toward the other gap.
“I told Max, ‘You've got everything back there,’ but he was playing on the other side,” Báez said. “We've been really good communicating on positioning, me not running too far that way when he's over to my side. But I just went for it and got a good first step.”
Clark covered 122 feet, but he never called it. He might have collided with Báez had he not heard the hissing. He did not hear the flapping of the cape.
“I knew if I got there, it was going to be head-down, run to the spot, pick it up and catch it,” Clark continued. “And then I just heard him [hissing], and he’s like, ‘I got it.’
“That’s why he’s got a gold patch [on his glove]. It doesn’t matter where he’s at; he’s an elite defender.”
Báez covered 112 feet to track down the fly on the warning track. He not only made a basket catch, he caught his necklace as it snapped after he bounced off the outfield fence.
“The ball's more important in that moment,” he said with a smile. “But I have both.”
Said Clark: “He doesn’t let anything drop. It’s El Mago. It’s special.”
It was the latest in a long list of Javy heroics over his Tiger tenure, but his first since adding left field to his skill set following Riley Greene’s hamstring injury. And as the Tigers celebrated their 2-1 walk-off win over the Dodgers on Saturday afternoon, it was arguably the difference.
“The ball is going to find him, and he’s going to make plays,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s such an instinctual player.”
Hernández’s 396-foot drive would’ve been a home run in 11 MLB parks, including Dodger Stadium, according to Statcast. It still had a 37 percent hit probability at Comerica Park. If that ball had fallen, Hernández would've had the go-ahead RBI to follow up his go-ahead run from Friday night’s series opener. And who knows what would’ve followed from there against former Dodger Kenley Jansen, who arguably had the third out two pitches before Báez’s catch until Hernández’s foul ball fell between first baseman Colt Keith and right fielder Zach McKinstry.
Instead, Báez stepped to the plate as the go-ahead run leading off the bottom of the ninth. But first, he had to catch his breath and get in the batter's box.
“That's one of my biggest fears is to get a strike without a pitch,” Báez said. “I almost called time, but I got ready pretty fast.”
Báez took two pitches from Dodgers lefty Jack Dreyer before lashing a double to left. Again, he teamed up with Clark, whose sacrifice bunt moved him to third with one out. After an intentional walk to Gleyber Torres and an unintentional walk to Hao-Yu Lee loaded the bases, Kevin McGonigle hit an opposite-field loft that bounced over the left-field fence for a rare walk-off ground-rule single.
McGonigle had gone 0-for-16 since a double on Monday against the Rays, but he’d walked twice Saturday against Dodgers lefty Blake Snell. He has never gone hitless in four consecutive Major League games. With a 1-2 count against Dreyer, he got a slider at the top of the zone and went the other way.
“Just happy I was able to come up in a spot like that,” McGonigle said. “Super proud I was able to come through for the guys in this clubhouse. It’s all because of them putting me in a good spot to win a baseball game.”