GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Chase DeLauter thought his season was over. The culprit was yet another injury, this time a broken hamate bone in his right hand while he was playing at Triple-A Columbus.<\/p>\n
He played what he thought was his last game of the season on July 17 before undergoing surgery on July 23. It usually takes six to eight weeks to recover from that kind of surgery, which meant another missed opportunity to make the big leagues and yet another season in the Arizona Fall League.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I had a little setback in my wrist\u201d said DeLauter. \u201cI needed a cortisone shot to get the inflammation out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
By that time, DeLauter was at Cleveland\u2019s spring-training facility in Goodyear to complete his rehab. He took a few at-bats with the Guardians Arizona Complex League team before that season ended, but most of his stay was devoted to working on his hand and swing.<\/p>\n
He was also making offseason plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to go back to Columbus, pick up my truck and drive home to West Virginia to get a little break before the Arizona Fall League started,\u201d said DeLauter.<\/p>\n
A phone call from James Harris changed those plans. Harris, Cleveland\u2019s assistant general manager, asked DeLauter if he wouldn\u2019t mind going to Columbus to continue his rehab even though the Clippers season was over.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me, \u2018You never know what could happen,\u2019\u201d said DeLauter.<\/p>\n
In Cleveland, the Guardians were completing a remarkable rally that saw them win the AL Central on the final day of the season after trailing first-place Detroit by 11 games on Sept. 4.<\/p>\n
They were one of baseball\u2019s best stories, winning with great pitching and an offense that did just enough to win. It was the kind of offense that needed a jolt.<\/p>\n
The Guardians put DeLauter on the taxi squad just before their three-game wild card series with the Tigers. DeLauter was delighted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could come to Cleveland and practice with the guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI was like, \u2018This is sick. I get to watch the games from the dugout. That\u2019s pretty cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
For Game 1 of the wild card series, the Guardians selected DeLauter\u2019s contract from Columbus. He was no longer a spectator.<\/p>\n
Manager Stephen Vogt started DeLauter in center field against Casey Mize in Game 2 after the Tigers won the opener of the best-of-three series, 2-1. Not only was DeLauter making his big league debut in the postseason \u2014 the first Cleveland player to do so \u2014 he was making it in an elimination game.<\/p>\n
Gleyber Torres, Detroit\u2019s second batter of the game, sent a fly ball to center field. On a windy and sunny day at Progressive Field, DeLauter lost the ball in the glare and dropped it for an error.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like 40,000 people punched you in the chest,\u201d said DeLauter. \u201cI\u2019m just glad Tanner Bibee got through the inning without giving up a run. He came up to me after the inning and said, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the fourth inning, with the Guardians leading, 1-0, the Tigers loaded the bases. Javy Baez sent a single to center and it appeared the Tigers scored two runs on the play.<\/p>\n
DeLauter, however, reached the ball quickly and made an on-target throw to third base to get Zach McKinstry. He was originally called safe, but Cleveland challenged and the call was overturned. McKinstry was out, and as an added bonus a run was taken off the board because the Detroit\u2019s second runner did not cross the plate before McKinstry made the third out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go from a crazy low to a crazy high,\u201d said DeLauter.<\/p>\n
DeLauter, who walked in his first plate appearance, went 0 for 2 in Game 2. In Game 3, he went 1 for 4 with a single.<\/p>\n
This spring DeLauter has his best chance to make the opening day roster in center or right field. The most important thing he has to do is stay healthy, something that has proven to be difficult since Cleveland made him a first round pick in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone says what do you have to do to stay healthy,\u201d said DeLauter. \u201cI just try to go to bed feeling good and wake up feeling good. I\u2019m giving myself the best chance as far as preparation goes and what I\u2019m putting in my body to fuel it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether something happens or not, I can live with it because I\u2019ve given it my best chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOODYEAR, Ariz. \u2014 Chase DeLauter thought his season was over. The culprit was yet another injury, this time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-487359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}