CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez was named the American League Player of the Week Tuesday.
It’s the second time in 2022 Ramirez has won the honor as he continues his blistering hot start to the season.
Last week, Ramirez hit .348 with three home runs, 11 RBIs and stole three bases. Seven of his eight hits went for extra bases.
Ramirez leads baseball with 51 RBIs and is tied for the league lead in triples with four.
“He doesn’t get a lot of pitches to hit,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “It’s like, he might get one during his at-bat, he’s just so smart. We’ve been fortunate sometimes where they had to pitch to him. Owen [Miller] and [Josh] Naylor have swung the bat well enough.”
On the season, Ramirez is batting .297 with 13 home runs, 11 doubles, six stolen bases and 28 runs scored while only striking out 15 times.
Only Manny Ramirez has driven in 50 runs faster in franchise history than Jose Ramirez has this season. In 1999 it took Manny Ramirez 38 games to drive in 50 runs and he had 57 RBI through 44 games. Jose Ramirez through 44 games has 51 RBI after driving in three more runs Monday evening.
Prior to Tuesday’s game with the Royals, Francona was asked to compare the two RBI machines.
“They’re [such] different players,” Francona said. “I mean, I used to laugh because with Manny, I thought in the batter’s box ‘Boy, look out’ but when he left the batter’s box, look out. Jose’s a premiere player everywhere on the field. He impacts the game everywhere.
“If you start talking about Jose in those comparisons, that’s a pretty big compliment, probably for both guys.”
Monday night marked the 10th time this season Jose Ramirez, who according to Baseball Reference is the first player in team history with 10 or more doubles, 10 or more home runs and 50 or more RBI through 44 games, has driven in at least three.
Jose Ramirez isn’t exactly hitting in the type of All-Star laden lineups that Manny Ramirez benefited from with the Indians in the 1990’s and the Red Sox fielded in the 2000s making what Cleveland’s third baseman is doing all the more impressive.
“In today’s game I think there’s an argument, you hear Billy Beane say it’s luck, [but] I don’t believe or agree with that,” Francona said. “I think some guys know how to drive in runs. Jose has certainly grown into that. He’s so smart, especially [because] our lineup is young, so he gets pitched to like nobody’s business. He’s just so smart that he still finds a way to be that productive.”
Civale Update – Upon further examination, starter Aaron Civale will have blood drained that built up as a result of an injury that landed him on the injured list Francona said Tuesday.
“It’s kind of like a football injury where you fall but you don’t just fall, you kind of scrape it too,” Francona said. “Hopefully that will speed up his process [to return].”
Civale, who underwent an MRI Monday after throwing a 35-pitch side session in preparation for a rehab start, suffered a glut strain May 20 while trying to make a play at first base in a 6-1 win over the Tigers.
Welcome to the Club – Outfielder Oscar Gonzalez has collected a base hit in each of his first four MLB games joining Steven Kwan, who hit safely in each of his first five games earlier this season.
According to Elias, the Guardians are the first team since the 2019 Rays (Nathaniel Lowe & Mike Brosseau) and 2019 Pirates (Bryan Reynolds & Jason Martin) to have multiple players record hits in each of their first 4 career games.
Gonzalez is the first Cleveland player since Roy Weatherly in 1936 to record three or more multi hit games in his first four career games.
Can’t Miss – The Guardians have struck out an MLB-low 320 times to date this season. The Chicago White Sox are ranked second with 336 strikeouts at the plate.
Going Streaming – Wednesday afternoon’s series finale with the Royals will be streamed by YouTube TV and not carried by Bally’s Sports.