Mets Closer Injured During World Baseball Classic Celebration

MIAMI — A rousing 5-2 victory by Puerto Rico over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday earned the workforce a spot within the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic. But the elation shortly became despair when the star nearer Edwin Díaz crumbled to the bottom throughout a postgame celebration on the mound.

Díaz’s teammates shaped a circle round him, hanging their heads or crying. Instead 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 sector. And when Díaz, 28, lastly stood up, he was first carried after which wheeled off the sector, 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 damage, the workforce stated. He will endure imaging on Thursday, and the Mets added that they “will update when appropriate.”

The damage 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 folks, and Puerto Rico, the runners-up within the earlier two installments of the match in 2013 and ’17, knocked out the Dominican Republic, a workforce of superstars that was one of many favorites.

But Díaz’s collapse erased these feelings and renewed the damage issues that encompass the match, which is held each 4 years and lasts two weeks throughout Major League Baseball’s spring coaching. It additionally might have dealt an enormous blow to the Mets, a workforce that’s getting into the yr with World Series aspirations.

“As excited as we were about the game and all that, it’s one of our brothers,” stated Puerto Rico heart fielder Enrique Hernández, a Boston Red Sox participant.

Several high gamers, lots 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 damage issues — present or potential — as their purpose. Teams usually fear that gamers should ramp up sooner than regular earlier than the 162-game common season to compete in video games that matter way 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. But then Díaz collapsed to the bottom, and teammates signaled instantly for the coaching employees to come back out.

Off to the facet, Puerto Rico captain Francisco Lindor, a fellow Met, seemed on the floor whereas hunched over. Robinson Canó, the Dominican infielder and former Met, held his palms on his head. Tears streamed down Díaz’s brother’s face.

Puerto Rico Manager 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 seemed up, he was shocked to see Díaz on the bottom.

“When you see a guy that works so hard like Edwin, when you see him on the ground like that, it just is sad,” he stated.

Molina added later about postgame celebrations, “If anything is going to happen, it will happen. Celebrations exist ever since I was born. It’s God’s will. I just hope that Edwin is going to be OK, that his family is OK and we are praying for him.”

Behind eight pitchers, Puerto Rico neutralized a star-studded Dominican Republic offense and performed cleaner protection. At 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 gained Pool C, on Saturday in Miami.

In the tunnel exterior the Puerto Rico clubhouse after the sport, Díaz’s brother and oldsters, in tears, have been escorted away.

“Aside from being the best closer in the game right now, and being a huge part of this team, Sugar is 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 workforce.

“He has a really big bank account, but his heart is way bigger,” Hernández stated, including later in regards to the damage, “The fact that it was him, it’s a big blow in more ways than one.”