DETROIT — As the Cleveland Guardians took batting practice on Thursday afternoon, first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. recounted the most gut-wrenching moments of his career, the heartbreaks that have cost him sleep and kept him hungry.
There was the blown series lead against the Yankees — no, not that one. One of the other ones. There was the World Series collapse against the Chicago Cubs, along with the late-inning meltdown against the Florida Marlins. Cleveland’s baseball outfit had gone 9,848 days since its last postseason victory when staring down elimination, with “so many devastating losses” in between, as Alomar detailed.
Not since Oct. 25, 1997, when Chad Ogea emerged as a World Series MVP candidate and Omar Vizquel preserved a lead with a diving stop in the outfield grass had Cleveland staved off an earlier-than-desired arrival of winter. And Alomar has donned a Cleveland uniform for almost all of it.
“We have to plow the door down,” he said Thursday afternoon, “instead of knocking.”
Four hours later, David Fry high-fived Alomar as he rounded first base, his momentum-shifting, series-saving, visitors dugout-quaking home run — the first go-ahead, pinch-hit blast in franchise history — having disappeared into the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen.
And then Fry blacked out.
October can elevate anyone into the role of hero. The madness of the postseason can scoop up a nationally anonymous part-timer and spit them out as a household name.
No one knows that fate better than Rajai Davis, who has attended every game of the series as a senior director of on-field operations for the league. With one triumphant, choked-up swing against Aroldis Chapman eight postseasons ago, he morphed from journeyman outfielder to immortal memory-maker in every home from Vermillion to Ashtabula. He never tires of talking about his Game 7 game-tying shot to the left-field porch, about how he studied his previous encounters with Chapman, about the David vs. Goliath script or about how often his son watches the replay.
Davis was a 38th-round pick from the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, who spent 14 years in the majors after contemplating bailing on baseball as a frustrated minor-leaguer, who yearned for more opportunities. Even though only two of his seasons came with Cleveland, and even though he posted a mere .653 OPS over those two seasons, that’s where he left his mark as a playoff hero.
So, leave it to the twisted, beautiful, agonizing postseason to add another chapter to Fry’s captivating story.
Thirty-one months ago, Fry was catching a bullpen session in Milwaukee Brewers minor-league camp when team officials informed him he was being traded to Cleveland. This had been brewing for months, but the lockout prevented Milwaukee from finalizing its end of the deal. The Guardians had targeted Fry, but they had to ensure another team didn’t select him in the Rule 5 Draft, so Fry’s identity was concealed all winter as a Player To Be Named Later. When the lockout wiped out the draft altogether, the teams completed the deal: Fry to Cleveland in exchange for pitcher J.C. Mejía.
Since joining the Brewers, Mejía has totaled 13 2/3 innings (and 13 earned runs allowed). He has also served an 80-game suspension and a 162-game suspension, respectively, for failed PED tests. Fry, meanwhile, earned a spot on the American League All-Star team this summer and socked a pinch-hit homer to force a decisive Game 5 of the American League Division Series at Progressive Field on Saturday night.
“You dream about it as a kid,” Fry said, “and think about it all the time, and in the offseason when you’re working on stuff. And then it happens and it goes by really quick.”
For a couple months this season, Fry was flirting with the top of the OPS leaderboard, alongside Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. He crashed back to Earth around the time he started experiencing right elbow soreness. That limited his defensive versatility; in the first half, his ability to shift from catcher to first base or the corner outfield granted manager Stephen Vogt plenty of flexibility in deploying pinch-hitters.
As the season unfolded, he fell into a platoon with Kyle Manzardo in the designated hitter spot. Against the Tigers in the ALDS, that presented some challenges. Fry replaced Manzardo at the plate in the third inning in Game 3, and proceeded to go 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a small village stranded on base.
Vogt was more selective with his pinch-hitters in Game 4. He waited until the seventh to summon Fry, preferring a matchup of Fry against a righty over Manzardo against a lefty. When a decision pays dividends, a manager resembles a genius. When it doesn’t, a manager attracts plenty of criticism, especially on this stage.
Fry delivered.
“You just can’t say enough about what David has meant to us this year,” Vogt said.
Steven Kwan, standing on second base and plenty familiar with the spacious terrain in left field, was careful not to react until he was certain the ball traveled past the fence. Hunter Gaddis, a 6-foot-6 mountain, struggled to follow the baseball’s flight path since the dugout railing met his eye level as he sat on the bench. He had to resist releasing too much emotion since he was bound to pitch the bottom of the inning. Josh Naylor, who emerged from the dugout to slide onto the on-deck circle, flung his bat high enough to tickle the clouds.
Fry circled the bases and returned to the frenzied dugout in a blur.
“This is his coming out party,” said catcher Austin Hedges.
Two innings later, before Fry strode to the plate with runners on the corners and one out, Vogt asked how confident he was in placing a bunt on the infield grass. Fry, with his typical, self-deprecating wit, replied that he “wasn’t a very good hitter in high school.” In other words, he bunted often, so he was oozing confidence.
Fry executed the bunt, which allowed Brayan Rocchio to race home from third with a pivotal insurance run.
And not only did Fry homer and deliver a squeeze bunt, he also predicted José Ramírez’s home run in a dugout conversation with Hedges before Ramírez deposited a pitch into the left-field seats.
“I will take all the credit,” Fry joked.
Why not? This was Fry’s night, the night a PTBNL-turned-All-Star rescued his team from elimination, the sort of script made for October.
“A big reason why we’re here right now,” Hedges said, “is because of David Fry.”
(Photo of Fry rounding the bases: Duane Burleson / Getty Images)
