Guardians superstar José Ramírez’s ninth-inning swing took a backseat to the Yankees’ 6-3 victory in Game 2 of the ALCS on Tuesday night. Maybe that’s how it will stay too, since the Yankees now have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, meaning it’s extremely likely that the Yankees win this series.
If the Guardians want to build their way to this thing, offensively, it will have to happen on the back of their star. That’s why the home run was such a beautiful sight to see…
…because before that home run, Ramírez was in the middle of a horrible playoff run. In fact, he has long struggled in the playoffs.
We’ve seen and heard a lot about Yankees superstar Aaron Judge’s postseason struggles — coincidentally, he also went deep in his final at-bat in Game 2 — but Ramírez has arguably been worse.
And while Ramírez isn’t Judge’s star, he’s pretty damn accomplished and arguably more important to the Guardians’ offense than Judge is to the Yankees’.
This season, the Guardians ranked 12th in home runs and Ramírez hit 39. The Guardians finished 14th in runs scored. Ramírez scored 114 and brought home 118.
During his regular season career, Ramírez is a .279/.352/.504 hitter. This season he hit .279/.335/.537 (143 OPS+). Before Game 2 on Tuesday night, Ramírez was a career .229/.291/.347 postseason hitter in 38 games. Before that ninth-inning home run, he was 3-for-23 in the 2024 postseason.
The Guardians don’t have a deep offense. They sometimes use their bench to pinch hits/subs during the match in both holes. They burned their best bench bat in the fourth inning of Game 2. Only two players hit more than 14 home runs. Only two players have stolen more than 12 bases and Ramírez led the way with 41.
Basically, he’s far too important to the offense to struggle in the playoffs and allow the team to continue to survive.
The Guardians have an incredibly tall order – a gargantuan one – to come back and win this series. They can do it, but they surely won’t unless the regular season version of José Ramírez shows up on offense. Through that lens, perhaps a small silver lining to what happened in Game 2 was that ninth-inning home run.