PHILADELPHIA – A 20-year playoff drought can call for desperate measures. Just ask Luis Arráez.
He was the most dynamic player on a Miami Marlins team that qualified for the playoffs in a full season for the first time since 2003, the greatest pure hitter in the game right now driving the offense with a batting average that hovered near .400 all the way through the first half.
But Arráez, a second baseman whose .354 average led all the major leagues, had not started a game since Sept. 23 due to an ankle injury. The Marlins scratched into the playoffs anyway, and it was an open question whether Arráez might find his name in the lineup when Miami opened a best-of-three National League wild-card series Tuesday against division rival Philadelphia.
Yet when Phillies ace Zack Wheeler delivers the game’s first pitch, Arráez will dig into the batter’s box – and really, there was no question.
“If I’m here with one leg, I’ll go play with one leg,” Arráez said before Game 1. “I need to be there to help my team win.”
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He’s not wrong about that.
Arráez was a machine this season, notching 54 multi-hit games and 203 hits in 147 games. Acquired in a rare win-win, big leaguer-for-big leaguer deal for Minnesota Twins ace Pablo López, Arráez became the first player in major league history to win batting titles in consecutive years in both leagues.
He easily led the Marlins with 4.9 Wins Above…
