CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Jose Ramirez burst the St. Louis Cardinals’ bubble.
Ramirez smashed a two-run double to right center with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Guardians a 4-3 walk off victory Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field.
“Most importantly, win the series and you get going like this,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “And especially that we’re able to win the game and personally it’s important for me to be able to dedicate this game to my family back home, and Mother’s Day in the [Dominican Republic].”
Here’s our Final 9 following a dramatic turn of events that left the Guardians relieved and excited as they hit the road.
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1. As Ramirez got to second base and the winning run scored, the Guardians poured out of the dugout to celebrate. When they got to Ramirez, Josh Naylor poured a bucket of manager Terry Francona’s ‘Dubble Bubble’ gum on Ramirez’s head and Ramirez ended up wearing the bucket as a crown. “I think this is part of the fun, the celebration,” Ramirez said through an interpreter.
2. Thank you cards to the Cardinals for pitching to Ramirez in that spot. Ramirez might have saved the season Sunday. OK, maybe a tad dramatic, but had he not come through, Cleveland would’ve suffered another agonizing loss with their offense basically catatonic in the run production department. “It is a reminder this is a hard game,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “It’s not going to be always come our way and this is a long season. We’re going to prepare because something’s going to happen positive and negative, but we have to be ready for all of those.” Francona can exhale after the Guardians won their fourth series in their last 15 Sunday thanks to Ramirez’s heroics. “He tries to will himself, I think, and a lot of guys can be like that, but he's also extremely talented to boot,” Francona said.
3. After blowing opportunities for big innings in the first and eighth, the Guardians finally broke through in the ninth thanks to Ramirez, who was able to cash in a pair of walks to win the game. Cleveland couldn’t add on with two on and one out in the first and Will Brennan hit into a 1-2-3 double play snuffing out a bases loaded, one out opportunity in the eighth. Thankfully Ramirez bailed them out. “Honestly, I mean we could have used anybody to do that, but I think having a guy like Josey do it, obviously we know how much he means to this team, this organization, it just magnifies even more,” catcher Mike Zunino, who went 2-3 and is 6-15 in his last five games, said. “I know the pressure that he puts on himself to really get this team going, he’s in there every day. So I mean to see that come through, to see Miles to Sequan put together really good at bats and then him come through with that, like he said, it’s something we needed. We would've taken it from anybody, but it’s even more special coming from Josey.”
4. A tip of the cap to Xzavion Curry, who picked up his first Major League win with three shutout innings of relief. “Good for him. Such a good kid,” Francona said. “I was telling [pitching coach] Carl [Willis] we bring him in the seventh if he struggles, we’re in trouble just because of the usage we had last night and they hit some balls on the nose. But he did a good job. He throws strikes, doesn’t beat himself.” Curry allowed just two hits and faced 11 batters.
5. The first four innings went pretty well for Guardians starter Hunter Gaddis. Then came the fifth. “It changed in a hurry,” Francona said. “It’s like he went out and I think the first pitch thing was 90 because I thought maybe it was a cutter. Then I asked [Zunino], he goes, no it was fastball and it was like everything was like a ball or two up and flatter than it had been the whole game and I don't know why.” Three Cardinals sent his offerings over the wall – Alec Burleson, Andrew Knizer and Paul Goldschmidt. Tommy Edman also took Gaddis to the wall for a very long out. “It just comes down to the location,” Gaddis said. “I mean, they were all just over the heart of the plate, down into the lefties. Not a good spot either, so it's just honing in, getting it down where it's supposed to be.”
6. Kwan got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI double to left but that’s all the damage the offense could muster to cut the Cardinal lead to 3-2.
7. Josh Bell, who went 2-4 blooped an RBI single to right center to sore Steven Kwan, who led off with a single, to give the Guardians a 1-0 lead on the Cardinals in the bottom of the first. It helped that St. Louis right fielder Brendan Donovan tripped when he started towards the ball.
8. Cleveland improved to 11-14 in one run games as they continue to lead baseball in one-run nail biters and they are now 15-5 when scoring at least four runs in a game this season thanks to their second walk-off victory of the year.
9. The Guardians had a great weekend at the gate. They drew 27,398 Sunday afternoon to bring the three-day weekend total to 90,925, the most to show for a series in April or May since 2011 against the Cincinnati Reds. It was the largest combined attendance for a series since August 23-25, 2019 against Kansas City.