CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It is a discombobulated time of the season. Frenzy is in the air.
The Indians have 11 games left and wins are all that matters as they try to reach the postseason. Rosters are approaching 40 players. A new player seems to arrive every day, each one with the sole purpose of doing one thing, no matter how small, to help win a game.
Super utility man Andrew Velazquez arrived from Class AAA Columbus on Tuesday to help replace veteran second baseman Jason Kipnis, who is done for the year with a broken hamate bone in his right hand. Velazquez, in a rush to get to Cleveland, arrived without his suitcase.
Columbus was on its way to play Sacramento in Memphis for the Class AAA National Championship on Tuesday night. The Clippers lost, 4-0, to Sacramento after winning the International League championship.
“I was about to get on the plane to Memphis on Sunday,” said Velazquez. "My suitcase was on the plane already. I was boarding the plane and Tony Mansolino (Columbus manager) called me and said, ‘Did you get on the plane yet?' I said, ‘I’m about to.’ He said, “Don’t get on the plane.’”
Velazquez didn’t get on the plane and made the trip to Cleveland. Unfortunately, his suitcase went to Memphis.
“I couldn’t get it off the plane, so I wore the same outfit for a couple of days,” he said with a laugh. “It got here today (Tuesday)."
Velazquez started at second base in Tuesday’s 7-2 win over the Tigers. He struck out four times, but made two nice plays in the field. In the second inning, he ranged into foul territory down the right field line to catch a fly ball by Dawel Lugo to end the second inning. In the process, he banged into the grandstand fence as right fielder Yasiel Puig and first baseman Carlos Santana converged.
“I was on it the whole way,” said Velazquez. "I didn’t want to take my eyes off of it. I sensed the fence was coming. I know I had a long way to go.
“Initially, I thought I ran into him (the 240-pound Puig). I think I was better off running into the fence.”
In the seventh, Lugo sent a hard grounder right at Velazquez. He handled it smoothly and turned it into a 4-6-3 double play.
“I’ll tell you what, the play he went down the right-field line was an amazing play," said manager Terry Francona. "And then the pea he started the double play with, that was two really good plays.”
Puig, the Wild Horse, has been hobbled. His collision with center fielder Oscar Mercado on Sept. 8 at Target Field has left him with a sore right ankle. His left knee has been barking since he was hit by a pitch Sept. 10 against the Angels.
But Puig has been to the postseason for six straight years with the Dodgers, including the World Series in 2017 and 2018. He knows how important this time of the season is. On Tuesday night he went 3-for-5 with an RBI. In the fourth, with two out, he beat out an infield single on a routine grounder to shortstop as Carlos Santana went to second. The Indians ended up scoring a run in the inning.
For Puig it was a lesson learned. On Sept. 7, in the fourth inning against the Twins, he hit a bouncer back to the mound and didn’t run. He just turned around and headed back to the dugout. It did not go over well with Francona and his teammates.
“I like to play hard every day. The one time in Minnesota, I hit a ground ball to the pitcher and never ran and that’s not my game,” said Puig. "Tonight, I got a ground ball to the shortstop and I remembered the day I didn’t run and I felt bad and made my team and my manager look bad. I said, ‘All right, need to run,’ and I beat the shortstop and got the hit. If you’re not running, you never know what’s going to happen in that play.”
Puig feels that the Indians, someway, somehow, will get to the postseason.
“We have been doing the best we can every day and every night when we’re going out there,” he said. “We try to win games and see what happens at the end of the season because we want to go to the playoffs and we’ve been fighting every day and we’re gonna make it.”
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