The swing in the ninth inning from Guardians superstar José Ramírez was relegated to a footnote in the Yankees’ 6-3 win in Game 2 of the ALCS on Tuesday night. Maybe that’s how it’ll stay, too, since the Yankees now have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, meaning it’s overwhelmingly likely the Yankees win this series.
If the Guardians are to forge a path back into this thing, though, offensively it’ll have to happen on the back on their star. This is why the home run was such a nice sight to see…
…because prior to that home run, Ramírez was in the midst of an awful postseason. In fact, he’s long struggled in the playoffs.
We’ve seen and heard plenty about the playoff struggles of Yankees superstar Aaron Judge — coincidentally, he also went deep in his last at-bat in Game 2 — but Ramírez has arguably been worse.
And while Ramírez isn’t the star Judge is, he is pretty damn accomplished and arguably more important to the Guardians’ offense than Judge is to the Yankees’.
The Guardians this season ranked 12th in homers and Ramírez had 39. The Guardians were 14th in runs scored. Ramírez scored 114 and drove home 118.
In his regular-season career, Ramírez is a .279/.352/.504 hitter. This season, he hit .279/.335/.537 (143 OPS+). Prior to Tuesday night’s Game 2, Ramírez was a career .229/.291/.347 playoff hitter in 38 games. Before that ninth-inning home run, he was 3 for 23 in the 2024 playoffs.
The Guardians do not have a deep offense. They use their bench to pinch-hit/sub during the game in the two-hole at times. They burnt their best bench bat in the fourth inning in Game 2. Only two players hit more than 14 home runs. Only two players stole more than 12 bases and Ramírez led the way with 41.
Basically, he’s far too important to the offense to flail about through the playoffs and have the team continue to survive.
The Guardians have an incredibly tall — a gargantuan — order to come back and win this series. They can do it, but they surely can’t unless the regular-season version of José Ramírez shows up on offense. Through that lens, perhaps a small, silver lining to what went down in Game 2 was that ninth-inning home run off his bat.
