CLEVELAND — Twenty minutes after the Yankees blew a big lead and then won to put them a win away from the World Series, Anthony Rizzo was on his phone late Friday night in a hallway near the visiting clubhouse entrance at Progressive Field.
His cell was in his left throwing hand, his good one.
An ice pack the size of a small watermelon was on right hand, the one that still has two fractured fingers from a hit by pitch in Yankees’ regular-season game 161 of 162 on Sept. 29 at Yankee Stadium.
Last week at Yankee Stadium, Rizzo was spotted after a game without ice on his hand, which was swollen so much that it didn’t look real.
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If this wasn’t the playoffs, Rizzo would be on the injured list.
It’s not, so he’s playing in pain and contributing.
Rizzo had two more hits in the Yankees’ 8-6 Game 4 win on Friday night. That made five in his first four games back in 11 at-bats for a .455 average.
“He’s come up with some big hits, but he’s fighting through it,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said before Saturday’s ALCS Game 5. “It’s not healed, but he’s a gamer.”
Rizzo was involved in one of the pivotal moments of Game 4. The Guardians tied the game 6-6 in the eighth inning when Rizzo could handle a hard and short underhand throw from reliever Mark Leiter, who was only a couple feet away after fielding a squibber.
The scored ruled the play a hit, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone agreed with the decision while saying that Rizzo’s hand “didn’t have anything to do with” him not catching Leiter’s toss.
Sitting in his office with a baseball in his hand, Boone said “it was one of these” while he quickly flipped a baseball at a beat writer, who didn’t catch the ball before it fell to the floor.
Rizzo was back in the Yankees’ lineup again for Game 5 on Saturday night, his four start in five games since his return. He came off the bench to play in the other.
“I think he’s once he gets going out there, he’s all right,” Boone said.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
