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The Detroit Tigers are off to an incredibly hot start as they are one of the best teams in baseball, and the resurgence of Javier Baez is a big reason why. Baez was one of the best players in baseball when he played for the Chicago Cubs, but it's been a while since he has put together a successful season. So far this year, he is one of the hottest hitters in the game. Baez is hitting .319 with five home runs, 27 RBIs and a .870 OPS.
On Tuesday night at home against the Boston Red Sox, Javier Baez was the hero for the Tigers. He hit one three-run home run in the sixth inning, and then he hit a walk-off three-run shot in the 11th lift Detroit to a 10-9 win.
Baez is on fire this season, and no one saw it coming. Tigers manager AJ Hinch couldn't be happier for him.
“I am so happy for that guy,” AJ Hinch said after the game. “I don't know if he's going to tell you guys 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 explodes. Not just because we win, and not just how we win, but the fact that Javy is right in the middle of it is so awesome for this team and for Javy himself.”
It would've been easy for Baez to give up in recent years. He hit .184 last year and looked like a shell of his former self. He kept working, and he is finally trending in the right direction.
“He’s all in,” Hinch continued, according to an article from MLB.com. “We ask the guys to be all in, and here’s a guy who’s been through a lot in his time here. …He continues to battle, continues to fight and continues to try learning a new position, abbreviated playing time at the beginning of the season to now every day, wearing him out. And he's all in. He's an incredible human and he's doing his part. He should get all the praise for how he's gone about it.”
AJ Hinch and the Tigers have a plan for how they are trying to build this team, and Baez has bought in to everything that they are doing.
“He is a shining example of what we're trying to do here, which is be available to do anything and everything you can for a team to win,” Hinch said. “And that's easy to stand in front of a group and say it. It's easy to get young guys to be hungry. But this dude's got a Gold Glove. This guy's been a world champion. He has been the center focus of a team before. He's like, ‘Sure, I'll do it.' And that is priceless.”
Everyone is happy for Javier Baez, and he is feeling good right now. It's been a while since he had a stretch like this, and he is feeling good.
“Honestly, I'm grateful to feel like this,” Baez said. “Last year was a hard decision to get my surgery, and just to feel almost 100 percent and doing what I can do, swing at the sliders out there and make contact, I'm just happy. I feel good.”
In terms of Tuesday's walk-off home run, Baez went up to the plate looking for something specific. He got it, and he didn't miss it.
“I was just looking for that pitch,” Baez added. “The pitcher before, he threw me two fastballs 98. I fouled them off, but I feel like I was on time pretty good, so I was looking for that pitch.”
It was a disappointing loss for the Red Sox after leading 9-7 in the 11th. Manager Alex Cora is thinking what everyone else is: Javier Baez might be back.
“He’s hitting for average, he’s hitting for power,” Alex Cora said after the game. “This guy at one point was one of the best players in baseball, and they lost him for a while there when he signed here. He struggled and then he got hurt and then he had surgery, and it looks like he’s back.”
The Tigers have taken each of the first two games of this three-games series against the Red Sox. The two teams will finish things off on Wednesday night in Detroit at 6:40 ET as the Tigers look to sweep the Red Sox.
