MIAMI — A rousing 5-2 victory by Puerto Rico over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday earned the staff a spot within the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Traditional. However the elation rapidly changed into despair when the star nearer Edwin Díaz crumbled to the bottom throughout a postgame celebration on the mound.
Díaz’s teammates fashioned a circle round him, hanging their heads or crying. As a substitute of heading to the clubhouse at loanDepot Park to pack up their baggage, Dominican gamers lingered within the dugout, shocked on the scene on the sphere. And when Díaz, 28, lastly stood up, he was first carried after which wheeled off the sphere, unable to place any weight on his proper leg.
Díaz, who signed a record-setting five-year, $102 million deal this low season to stay with the Mets, sustained a proper knee harm, the staff stated. He’ll endure imaging on Thursday, and the Mets added that they “will replace when acceptable.”
The harm got here after a extremely anticipated do-or-die matchup between two baseball powerhouses, which had lived as much as expectations. The groups performed in entrance of a thunderous sellout crowd of 36,025 individuals, and Puerto Rico, the runners-up within the earlier two installments of the match in 2013 and ’17, knocked out the Dominican Republic, a staff of superstars that was one of many favorites.
However Díaz’s collapse erased these feelings and renewed the harm considerations that encompass the match, which is held each 4 years and lasts two weeks throughout Main League Baseball’s spring coaching. It additionally could have dealt an enormous blow to the Mets, a staff that’s getting into the yr with World Sequence aspirations.
“As excited as we have been concerning the recreation and all that, it’s certainly one of our brothers,” stated Puerto Rico middle fielder Enrique Hernández, a Boston Pink Sox participant.
A number of high gamers, a lot of them pitchers, declined to take part within the W.B.C. or have been denied permission to play by their M.L.B. groups. Some cited harm considerations — present or potential — as their purpose. Groups usually fear that gamers need to ramp up sooner than common earlier than the 162-game common season to compete in video games that matter far more than spring coaching exhibition contests.
Díaz, nonetheless, didn’t seem to harm himself whereas pitching on Wednesday. He fired his trademark 100-mile-per-hour fastballs and depraved sliders to strike out the facet within the ninth inning and didn’t seem like in ache earlier than the celebration started.
After the ultimate out, Díaz hugged his brother, Alexis, a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. They have been joined by different teammates, and with their arms round one another, they bounced up and down in a reasonably tame celebration. However then Díaz collapsed to the bottom, and teammates signaled instantly for the coaching workers to come back out.
Off to the facet, Puerto Rico captain Francisco Lindor, a fellow Met, appeared on the floor whereas hunched over. Robinson Canó, the Dominican infielder and former Met, held his fingers on his head. Tears streamed down Díaz’s brother’s face.
Puerto Rico Supervisor Yadier Molina stated he didn’t see what occurred to Díaz as a result of he was hugging his coaches within the dugout after the ultimate out. When he appeared up, he was shocked to see Díaz on the bottom.
“Once you see a man that works so arduous like Edwin, if you see him on the bottom like that, it simply is unhappy,” he stated.
Molina added later about postgame celebrations, “If something goes to occur, it should occur. Celebrations exist ever since I used to be born. It’s God’s will. I simply hope that Edwin goes to be OK, that his household is OK and we’re praying for him.”
Behind eight pitchers, Puerto Rico neutralized a star-studded Dominican Republic offense and performed cleaner protection. On the plate, Puerto Rico designated hitter Christian Vázquez homered, whereas Hernández and Lindor every added two hits. With the win, Puerto Rico superior to the quarterfinals because the runner-up of Pool D and can face Mexico, which received Pool C, on Saturday in Miami.
Within the tunnel outdoors the Puerto Rico clubhouse after the sport, Díaz’s brother and fogeys, in tears, have been escorted away.
“Apart from being one of the best nearer within the recreation proper now, and being an enormous a part of this staff, Sugar is without doubt one of the glue guys in that clubhouse,” Hernández stated, referring to Díaz by his nickname. He famous that Díaz, who saved 32 video games for the Mets every of the previous two seasons, helped organized dinners and gatherings for the Puerto Rican staff.
“He has a very massive checking account, however his coronary heart is manner larger,” Hernández stated, including later concerning the harm, “The truth that it was him, it’s a giant blow in additional methods than one.”