CLEVELAND — When Jose Ramirez is involved, opposing pitchers and catchers are always going to be feeling the pressure, like students who can only study so much for a test they know is going to be a gauntlet.
Whether he's in the batter's box or taking his lead off first base, pitchers and catchers can't take a sigh of relief. It's why Ramirez has finished in the top six in MVP voting five times .
The Boston Red Sox received the full Ramirez treatment in the Guardians' 6-4 win Thursday afternoon . It had been a somewhat slow start to the season for Cleveland 's star third baseman — until Thursday.
First, it was the bat. Ramirez strutted to the plate with the bases loaded in the second inning. Red Sox starter Chase Anderson worked to a full count before Ramirez started to foul off pitch after pitch. It forced Anderson to, again and again, have to attack the strike zone against a hitter most pitchers want no part of in that situation.
Eventually, Anderson slipped up, and the 10th pitch caught too much of the plate. Ramirez crushed it for a grand slam, putting the Guardians up 5-0.
Facing a hitter like that means every pitch becomes more dangerous to throw.
"I mean, especially somebody like Jose, he's obviously getting educated with each pitch," said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt . "He kept using the cutter, kept using the cutter, and then he got one in the nitro zone and didn't miss it."
Then it was Ramirez's legs that did the damage. In the seventh, Ramirez singled up the middle. He then stole second base and advanced to third when the ball dribbled away and into shallow center field. A few pitches later, he raced home on a passed ball, effectively manufacturing a run solely based on applying pressure to the Red Sox battery.
The grand slam was more valuable. But Vogt likes watching Ramirez run the bases just a bit more.
"I mean, I like both, but it's just what he does," Vogt said. "I mean, he makes stuff happen. … He's aggressive, he's smart, he's everything you could want in a ballplayer."
Vogt, as a former catcher , knows the kind of pressure a runner like Ramirez can apply. While Ramirez has above-average speed, he also isn't in the elite rankings of pure sprint speed. His base running metrics, though, are often among the best in the game, which means there's an argument that he is not only baseball's most exciting runner, but its smartest, too .
"You're always on your toes," Vogt said. "You gotta be thinking he's going, he's not going. You're always aware of where he is, and it takes your focus maybe off for the other jobs. I mean, anytime you have somebody that can cause havoc, and what's what our team does, it's just going to continue to put pressure on people."
Ramirez entered Thursday with an OPS south of .700, which is far below his normal levels. It's perhaps an encouraging sign for the Guardians to be able to start the season 18-7 without him being his normal self, especially when they know days like Thursday — in which he beats an opponent in multiple ways — are bound to happen.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Threads at @ByRyanLewis .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians' Jose Ramirez making an impact as a base runner
