You have to keep doing what you’re doing, do better this year.’”Īlexis has done just that, converting all 13 of his save opportunities with the Reds. You have to keep going, keep pitching, keep doing what you’re doing.’ I told him, ‘This is your second year in the big leagues. “I talked to him because he was saying it was his fault when I got hurt, because he was the one who first hugged me,” said Edwin, who in seven previous major-league seasons had never been on the injured list. And he knew that night, even while facing potential season-ending surgery, that Alexis needed him. Edwin is involved in virtually every aspect of Alexis’ career, right down to picking his walk-out song. Edwin is Alexis’ closest advisor, his role model, his best friend. To Alexis, Edwin is more than simply an older brother. And they relived the pain, the shock of Edwin’s injury, the misfortune of a teammate so kind his nickname is “Sugar.” They relived their moment of joy, their emotional victory over the rival Dominican Republic to advance to the WBC quarterfinals, Edwin’s strikeouts of Ketel Marte, Jean Segura and Teoscar Hernández to close out the victory. That night, after Edwin returned from the hospital to the team hotel in Miami, a number of the Puerto Rican players gathered in his room. Only months before, Edwin had agreed to a guaranteed five-year, $102 million free-agent contract with the Mets. The injury, Maldonado said as he embraced Alexis in the dugout, was no one’s fault. Martín Maldonado, who is from Naguabo, Puerto Rico, the same hometown as the Díazes, reassured Alexis after Edwin left the field in a wheelchair. Others, though, recall Alexis reacting differently, blaming only himself, saying he somehow had compromised Edwin while the players were jumping gleefully near the pitcher’s mound.
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