Wilyer Abreu didn’t talk much to his teammates, coaches, or Boston manager Alex Cora when he came to play against the Texas Rangers the day after his grandmother passed away.
The 25-year-old outfielder couldn’t hide his feelings after hitting one of his two home runs in a 7-2 win over the Rangers on Sunday.
“It obviously was a difficult situation,” Abreu said through an interpreter after the first two-homer game of his career. “I was playing for her. I dedicated this game to her. I was playing with my heart in my hand. For me to be able to go out there and perform was very special.”
After hitting a solo home run to tie the game in the fourth inning, Abreu wiped his face with a towel while looking at the dugout wall. Some teammates and coaches checked on him, and he said he was fine.
Abreu still had tears in his eyes when he went back to right field. And he hadn’t even hit the biggest of his two home runs yet — a three-run shot that broke open the game in the sixth inning and helped the Red Sox win the series.
“Hats off to him,” Boston starter Nick Pivetta said. “He has a room full of his family in here as well, and we’re always going to be there for him. We got the best of him today, and it was incredible to watch. It was a special moment for baseball.”
The Red Sox knew Abreu’s grandmother was very ill and in the hospital in his home country of Venezuela. They had been discussing backup plans for weeks.
Suddenly, Cora had to handle the emotions of the game, with the Rangers bringing in left-hander Walter Pennington from the bullpen for a lefty-lefty matchup with Abreu.
Cora decided to keep Abreu in the game.
“Sometimes you make decisions in game by the metrics,” Cora said. “I let him hit because I was like, ‘Something good is going to happen here against the lefty.’ That’s life, right? We’re not perfect. We try to live the good life. I think the Lord rewarded him with that one.”
