CLEVELAND — Anthony Rizzo found an unlikely path to redemption.
The four-time Gold Glove winner's two days of defensive near-misses helped the Yankees rally from a four-run deficit on Friday as he started a game-winning ninth inning with one shot by MLB's best closer. That blew some away. They defeated the Guardians 8-6 in Game 4 of the ALCS.
“That guy was there, he did that,” Aaron Judge said of Rizzo. “He played in Game 7 of the World Series and had a favorable outcome.” [for the Cubs]. He understands that there will be some ups and downs during the game and that he may do something bad, but there will be another chance. ”
It was only a few minutes before the single that Rizzo allowed a tying goal by scrambling pitcher Mark Leiter Jr.'s underhand toss through his legs. The reverse batter bounced off Reiter's foot and rolled all the way to the first base line, where he performed a flip that appeared to handcuff Rizzo.
“I tried to stay calm and make some quick flips, but it was just a tough play,” Reiter said. “You guys are so close that I might have been picking up on his blind spot a little bit.”
Rizzo, who is playing with two broken fingers on his glove hand and back issues, didn't look as agile as he usually does at first base.
In the first inning, he dived for a line drive that would have turned into a double play, but the ball flew out of his glove and resulted in a double, giving him a 1-run lead.
But when Rizzo stepped up to bat against Emmanuel Clase, all those thoughts washed away from his mind. The flamethrower right-hander, who made a save in Thursday's Game 3, was met with Rizzo's leadoff single.
Pinch hitter John Berti ran in for Rizzo and scored the winning run. Rizzo had 2 hits in 4 at bats.
“He always talks about turning the page and moving on to the next thing,” Tommy Kahnle said after making the save. “He's done a great job of that and instilling that in a lot of the young players here. It's always been important that he preached. Errors and bad pitches happen. His mentality is he’s not going to bring that to the plate and start us.”
It was just the day before that Rizzo, 35, entered the match as Berti's defensive replacement and struggled with two hot smashes.
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Rizzo is obviously not at 100 percent, but he is fighting for a possible World Series appearance. Because, as he said when ALCS began, “the clock is only ticking my age” and he knows “you never know when you're going to die.” We'll have a chance to play for the pennant again. ”
