Cleveland Guardians Beat Tampa Bay Rays in Wild Card Game 1

Chernoff noted that Giménez didn’t allow last year’s disappointment to damage him.

“He let it play out this year,” Chernoff said. “He just put his head down and continued to improve. And now he’s one of the best defensive second basemen in all of baseball, and his bat has really come around.”

Looking back, Giménez said he was surprised when the Mets told him they were trading him, but an even bigger surprise came this July when Francona informed him that he was an All-Star. The team was in Kansas City, and the manager gathered the players in the clubhouse and announced that José Ramírez and Clase were going to Dodger Stadium. Then, Francona started to walk away before turning and dramatically saying that, oh, by the way, Giménez made the team, too.

A roar went up in the clubhouse, and Giménez soon went to the dugout to break the news to his wife and mother in an emotional FaceTime call. At the game, he was especially touched when Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, his countryman and a national hero in Venezuela, made it a special point to congratulate him.

“Pretty cool,” Giménez said.

Friday, after fielding Yandy Diaz’s first-inning smash, Giménez made a snappy turn to complete an inning-ending double play in the second as Bieber threw seven and two-thirds innings of one-run ball. Rosario collected two hits, the second of which came just ahead of Ramírez’s home run that made all the difference.

“You never know how it’s going to play out,” Chernoff said of the trade. “But obviously, thankfully, we’ve been fortunate in how it’s played out so far.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/sports/baseball/guardians-rays-wild-card-game-1.html