Detroit — He stood at home plate with his arms raised to the heavens.
In that moment, as the baseball sailed into the left-field seats, his second three-run home run of the night giving the Tigers a cinematic 10-9 walk-off win in 11 innings against the Boston Red Sox, Javier Báez had two things flash through his mind.
“I was just trying to push it out,” was his initial thought. “I was trying to do the Manny (Ramirez) but I wasn’t sure it was going out or not. But I hit it pretty good.”
The second thought was just gratitude.
“Last year was hard,” he said. “It was a hard decision to get my surgery and just to feel almost 100 percent again, maybe 100 percent, and seeing what I can do. I’ve done it before. … I’m just happy I feel good.”
You know the story. Báez, who signed a six-year, $140 million contract with the Tigers in 2021, has until now produced one bad season and two miserable ones in Detroit. He finally agreed to have surgery on his right hip last August. He was on the sidelines as the Tigers went on their 31-13 run into the postseason.
He came to camp this spring essentially in a utility role. Look at him now.
“I’m so happy for that guy,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I don’t know if he’s going to tell you how important it is to him. I don’t know if he’s going to tell you how much it means to him. But I know it does. Our whole team exploded (when he hit the homer) and not just because we won and not just how we won, but because Javy was right in the middle of it.
“It’s so awesome for the team and for Javy himself.”
The Báez renaissance is real.
In the sixth inning, he hit a two-out, three-run home run off a slider from right-handed reliever Garrett Whitlock to take the Tigers from one run down to two runs up, 6-4. In the 11th, he hit a first-pitch sweeper from reliever Greg Weissert. The swings were almost identical, as were the ball flights — two barreled up homers on high-spin pitches that had Báez flailing at the last two seasons.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 10, Red Sox 9 (11)
The surgery has liberated his swing. He’s an athlete again.
“It’s more than the rotation (of his hips),” he said. “It was more about transferring my weight, you know. Loading and trying to go forward. That was the thing. It wasn’t letting me swing.”
Playing center field has also liberated him. More than anyone could have guessed for a Gold Glove-winning shortstop.
“I’ve been trying to play center field my whole career,” he said. “I knew I was going to be good at it because that’s my natural position when I was a kid. Now that I’m playing it, I’m saying, ‘I told you.'”
Báez is beloved in the Tigers’ clubhouse because even at his lowest point last year, he never stopped being a good teammate. He never stopped caring. So when he came back from rehabbing in Florida and joined the team in Cleveland for the postseason, he was welcomed back with open arms.
“We ask our guys to be all in,” Hinch said. “And here’s a guy who has been through a lot in his time here and he’s continued to battle, continued to fight, continued to try. He’s learned a new position, he had abbreviated playing time at the beginning of the season and now every day we’re wearing him out and he’s all in.
“He’s an incredible human and he’s doing his part.”
He’s leading the team with a .319 batting average and he’s slashing .387/.406/.613 with runners in scoring position.
“It matters so much to me because it matters so much to him,” Hinch said. “He is a shining example of what we’re trying to do here. Which is, be available to do anything and everything for our team to win. It’s easy to stand up here and say it. It’s easy to get young guys to be hungry and thirsty to be in the big leagues.
“But this dude’s got a Gold Glove, he’s been a world champion, he’s been the center focus of a team before and he’s like, ‘Sure, I’ll do it.’ That is priceless.”
The game itself was nuts. The Tigers gave back four leads. David Hamilton answered Báez’s first homer with a two-run blast off Tommy Kahnle to tie the game in the eighth. It was the first homer allowed by Kahnle this season.
The Red Sox plated the free runner in the top of the 10th on a fielder’s choice ground out by Ceddanne Rafaela. The Tigers answered that in the bottom of the 10th with a clutch two-out single by Trey Sweeney.
In the top of the 11th, rookie Kristian Campbell hit a two-out, two-run home run off Beau Brieske — a ball right fielder Zach McKinstry just missed bringing back — putting the Tigers in a 9-7 hole.
A single by Jace Jung helped set the table for Baez in the bottom of the inning. Jung, who was hitting just .098, had a huge at-bat before Báez’s first homer in the sixth, too. With two outs, he worked an eight-pitch at-bat off Whitlock, fouling off three, two-strike pitches before taking one off the foot.
In the 11th, he hung in against the side-arming Weissert and slapped a single to right field.
“I know I sound like a broken record, but just contribute to a win,” Hinch said. “There were a lot of big moments and we continued to fight and claw. We’re never going to quit. We’re never going to stop playing, even when it feels like our backs are against the wall.
“That is the DNA of this team and we got rewarded for that. That’s an incredible atmosphere in the clubhouse right now.”
Báez was mobbed at home plate, getting doused with the same powder and water concoction he’s been know to distribute to his teammates after similar heroics.
“We were all ready with the powder,” he said, smiling. “It was my turn. I told those guys, we’ve got to play 27 (outs) and maybe more like we did tonight. Just give it all out there. We’re going to keep playing hard.”
@cmccosky
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