José Ramírez has carried Cleveland through October, but Tuesday night in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series was a brutal reminder of how quickly one inning can flip everything.
The Guardians’ star made two defensive mistakes in the fourth, and those miscues opened the door to three unearned runs in a 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay at Tropicana Field. The defeat squared the best-of-seven series at one game apiece and sends it back to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday.
It started with two outs and Victor Mesa Jr. on first. Chandler Simpson chopped a ball high off the infield, Brayan Rocchio handled it and threw to first, and Ramírez was caught watching the play instead of covering third base. Mesa never stopped running, reaching third as Simpson beat the throw for an infield single.
One batter later, the damage got worse.
Ben Williamson hit a grounder toward third that took an awkward hop. Ramírez waited on it instead of charging, and the ball skipped through his legs and into left field.
Mesa scored, Simpson and Williamson moved up, and the inning had gone sideways in a hurry. Liam Hicks followed with a two-run single to right, and Tampa Bay was suddenly ahead 3-0.
For rookie Parker Messick, that was all the support he was going to get. The left-hander gave Cleveland five innings without allowing an earned run, but the three unearned runs were enough to decide the game.
The timing was especially harsh for Ramírez, who came into Game 2 scorching hot. Over his previous four games, he was batting .471 (8-for-17) with a double, triple, home run and eight RBI. He had launched the two-run homer in Game 5 against Chicago that pushed Cleveland into the ALCS, and his three-hit effort in Monday’s opener stretched his postseason RBI streak to four straight games, tying a franchise record shared by Jim Thome and Sandy Alomar Jr.
Before the game, manager Stephen Vogt talked up the way Ramírez has fueled this postseason run.
“We talk about him a lot, but the energy and the joy that Hosey plays with is how you want every baseball player to play,” Vogt said. “He was having fun in a big game. When you make things happen like that, you should celebrate it.”
Rookie Chase DeLauter was just as direct.
“He’s the G.O.A.T.,” DeLauter said. “We feed off of him, right?
When he comes out and has that kind of fire, it lights all of us up. That’s our leader, that’s a guy we want to follow.”
Ramírez did get a hit Tuesday, and that moved him into second place on Cleveland’s all-time postseason hits list with 49. He passed Kenny Lofton, who had 48, and trails only Omar Vizquel’s 57.
But when the Guardians needed a breakthrough in the seventh with runners on first and second, Ramírez lofted a fly ball to center field and the rally never came.
Cleveland has depended on him all month, and his fingerprints have been on its biggest wins. This time, they were on its first ALCS loss. The Guardians had a chance to take control, but Ramírez’s fourth inning gave Tampa Bay the opening it needed, and Messick’s strong outing went to waste.
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