Jose Ramirez is once again looking like the guy Cleveland has always believed he is, and Chase DeLauter made sure to say it out loud after the Guardians snatched Game 1 of the AL Championship Series from the Rays on Monday night.
DeLauter, who was in the lineup behind Ramirez, didn’t dance around the topic when asked about his teammate’s run this fall. “He's the GOAT,” DeLauter said about Ramirez, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN.
“He's a Hall of Famer. I let him do his thing, and I try to focus on my own and try to contribute any way I can.
Whether they pitch to him, it doesn't change my plan.”
That confidence has been matched by Ramirez’s production. After the Guardians fell behind 2-0, DeLauter gave them life with a solo homer in the top of the sixth. Then in the top of the eighth, Nathaniel Lowe brought both Ramirez and DeLauter home to push Cleveland ahead 4-2 on the way to a 7-3 win in Tampa Bay.
Ramirez’s October reputation has been a talking point for years in Cleveland, especially when the postseason results didn’t always match the regular-season star power. He had slashed .225/.313/.353 with a .666 OPS, four homers and 19 RBI across his first 47 playoff games, according to Baseball-Reference. But that conversation has shifted quickly since the start of Game 3 of the ALDS against the White Sox, when he’s gone off for a .471/.526/1.000 line with a 1.526 OPS, two home runs and eight RBI.
The timing matters, too, because Ramirez is doing this after having a portion of the hamate bone in his left hand removed in June. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said the hot streak fits the way these things usually go once a player gets further from the injury and surgery.
“I think as we get further away from the injury and the surgery, I think Jose's just going to continue to feel better and better,” Vogt said.
Cleveland’s entire offense has taken on a different look since it was pushed to the brink. The Guardians scored just three runs in the first two games of the White Sox series before going on to score 27 over the next four games. Nathaniel Lowe said the early struggles forced the group to reset and respond.
“It feels good to see some balls fall, to see some guys get on the barrel, to see some guys have some great at-bats because the first two games of the White Sox series, we got beat,” Lowe explained after Monday’s win. “We did.
Whether it's beating ourselves, trying to do too much or not feeling it, we had to go get our backs against the wall and do something crazy, and this group did. It's nice to feel some momentum coming here to take Game 1.”
Game 2 of the ALCS is set for Tampa on Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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