CLEVELAND, Ohio – If the situation calls for it, a well-timed bun can be a thing of the beauty in baseball. For the Cleveland Indians, there was no better time than the 10th inning of Sunday’s game against Chicago with Delino DeShields Jr. on the plate and Jose Ramirez on third base.
DeShields, who led the American League in sacrificial rallies with the Texas Rangers in 2018 and 2017, hit a Jimmy Cordero pitch on the first baseline that Yasmani Grandal felt and flew to catcher James McCann. But McCann’s sweep tag completely misses Ramirez, who dives over the plate to score the lead as the Indians went on to claim a 5-4 victory over the White Sox.
It marked the first go-ahead RBI offering for the Indians since July 24, 2012, when Aaron Cunningham broke a 2-2 tie against Detroit at the bottom of the seventh. It was also the last go-ahead RBI offering for Cleveland since June 21, 1959 in the second game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium when George Strickland broke a 3-3 tie with a bass-laden sac-bundle in ‘ the top of the 13th.
For DeShields, the squeeze-bunt has been a part of his game since he started playing professional baseball.
“It’s something I do very comfortably,” DeShields said. ‘Sometimes it’s what it takes to go to a rally or get a run. Mostly everyone at the ballpark knows I’m bundled. I’m not hiding it. I’m not scared of it. ”
The Indians suffered their first loss of the 2020 season back on July 26 when Kansas City scored an unearned run in the top of the 10th inning without benefiting from a hit, thanks to the new automatic runner rule of baseball that a runner placed on the second base at the start of extra innings.
Cleveland’s acting manager, Sandy Alomar Jr., said the situation was set up perfectly in Sunday’s inning with Jose Ramirez as the automatic runner.
“You have to have a fast runner on the third base,” Alomar said. ‘It was planned for that. We have discussed it. It takes a man who can bundle, a good runner on third base and hopefully the defense is not crashing so fast. Delino did the right thing, he took the right place. ”
DeShields and Alomar spoke in the dugout before his at-bat knew that Grandal, the regular catcher of the White Sox, was currently playing first base.
“That run was important,” he said. ‘I knew Yasmani hadn’t played very often first. I know they are aware of it, but with Jose on third base, it seemed like the perfect play. ‘
DeShields knocked in place of Franmil Reyes in the lineup after Reyes delivered a game-binding RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“When we saw the lineup … we said the situation could be first and third,” Alomar said. “They had a catcher on the first base, so whatever you can do, if you can drag or hook a ball, but if you can push a bundle, it’s better, because (Jose) Abreu is not there. used to be.”
The play had a lot of upside, even if Ramirez failed to score, DeShields said.
“Worst scenario, I’m out, I’m not on base and there’s a man in the scoring position and we’ll get the run in,” DeShields said. “That’s what went through my head and I just wanted to get the job done.”
DeShields said he enjoys playing “small ball” and he is proud of doing the little things that add up in the long run. Whether the automatic runner rule then exists for the 2020 season or not, he wants to be ready, despite what the situation late in games requires.
“The man taking over from the second base, performing the sacrificial flight, those are small things that I take a lot of pride in, because I feel like that’s what it takes to win championships in my opinion,” he said. DeShields. “It’s a kind of art that you don’t really see much more in our game.”
DeShields also gave credit to Mike Freeman, who started the season for the first time this season and later came up with an RBI double later in the inning. Freeman’s insurance run proved to be the difference after the White Sox pushed their automatic runner across the plate in the bottom of the 10th.
“With the new rules, that can easily cross home plates,” DeShields said. “That was the play that really sealed the game here and gave us the confidence that we went out and won the game.”
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