CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Give it to him.
Jose Ramirez is the American League’s MVP.
I don’t care about how many home runs Aaron Judge has hit. It doesn't matter that Shohei Ohtani is a two-way phenom. There’s no player in baseball that provides the jolt that Ramirez provides to the Cleveland Guardians.
Look no further than his two-run bomb to catapult the Cleveland into the lead in the 6th inning and prove to be the difference in Guardians 2-1 win over Tampa Bay in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Progressive Field.
“He’s inevitable,” said Guardians starter Shane Bieber.
In mid-September, MLB.com voters were asked to rank their top five MVP candidates in each league. Ramirez came in third behind Judge and Ohtani. But the calendar has flipped to October and Ramirez looks as hot as ever.
Every team’s game plan has some form of ‘don’t let Ramirez beat you,” yet he somehow always gets a pitch to hit.
Jose Siri broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run off Bieber in the top of the 6th inning and one a one-run lead seemed insurmountable.
Then Ramirez stepped to the plate with Amed Rosario on first and flipped the script. He took a 1-1 elevated changeup to the opposite field. It was a pitch Ramirez was fooled on in two previous at-bats, and he wouldn’t get tricked a third.
“That was my plan, just look for that changeup,” Ramirez said. “It really resembles a fastball. I was just sitting on that pitch and I was just trying not to do too much, just put in the opposite side of the field and I was able to get good contact on it.”
It may have not been this way. Ramirez was shrouded by the cloud of his contract this offseason. It was widely suspected the Guardians would go the route of a trade if they couldn’t come to some sort of agreement by the end of Spring Training.
When Jose Ramirez got on the plane to Kansas City to start the season, suddenly Friday afternoon was possible.
“Nothing surprises me,” Rosario said. “To me, he's the best player in baseball.”
Rosario had perhaps the best vantage point for Ramirez’s go-ahead bomb into the bullpens. Standing on first, Rosario held up at second, unsure if the ball would carry over the fence on a cool, cloudy Cleveland afternoon.
For Ramirez, there was no question.
“When it came off the bat, I felt it was a homer. Obviously with this weather you never know,” Ramirez said. “When I saw the centerfielder trying to get to a wall i was kind of concerned and I sped up a little bit my at my pace.”
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash had his doubts. He immediately urged his pitcher to appeal before emerging from the dugout to issue a challenge. Cash’s contention wasn’t that the ball didn’t travel over the wall, but that Rosario didn’t re-touch second base when he rounded the bases.
“I was certain I stepped on the base,” Rosario said.
Ramirez’s home run put the exclamation point on an exceptional outing by Bieber. He dueled with Tampa starter Shane McLanahan all afternoon. Despite being the first to blink, he persevered.
“If you're going to give up a homer, it's the age-old adage to hopefully make it a solo,” Bieber said. “That’s where I found myself today.
Bieber tossed 7.2 innings, allowing 3 hits and 1 run while striking out 9 batters. McLanahan was almost equally as spectacular, going 7 innings, surrendering 7 hits, 2 runs while striking out five.
“Their guy was really good. When you start touching 98, that was pretty impressive,” said Guardians manager Terry Francona.
The Ramirez heroics helped snap an 8-game postseason losing streak for Cleveland dating back to 2017. His face is the only one remaining from that playoff roster that squandered a 2-0 series lead.
There’s no panic in this club, despite everything that’s been written and talked about revolving around their inexperience. Ramirez punctuated that talk Friday afternoon.
“Everything they do this year, a lot of it is because it’s for the first time,” Francona said. “They’re living through it for the first time. But all the things we try to live by, they do. And hopefully that will carry us a while longer.”