The Cleveland Guardians have one of the five – or even three – best players in the American League right now.
Jose Ramirez is coming off a career-best 21-game hitting streak, and he’s been one of the hottest offensive players in the game for the better part of a month.
Of course, he’s still far behind New York Yankees star Aaron Judge in the AL MVP race, and perhaps rightfully so.
But maybe, a three-game series with the Bronx Bombers will be just enough to show the rest of the baseball scene that the gap isn’t as wide as they think.
Fortunately for him, he’s always fared quite well at Yankee Stadium, as pointed out by Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga in the latest edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast:
“In 31 games played at Yankee Stadium he has a .394 batting average, 1.196 OPS, nine home runs, 19 RBIs and six steals across, 129 plate appearances,” Noga detailed on the podcast. “Something about Yankee Stadium really flips the switch for José Ramírez.”
Ramirez has been on a tear lately, and getting to play three games in one of his favorite venues will only do wonders for his confidence.
The Guardians couldn’t steal the first game of the series on the road, with Carlos Rodon looking dominant from start to finish.
Even so, their star third baseman still managed to get to him, going 2 for 4 with one run, and two stolen bases to drive his batting average to .330.
All in all, he has recorded 71 hits, 11 home runs, 13 doubles, one triple, 37 runs, 29 RBI, and 16 stolen bases.
He’s struck out just 25 times this season.
Jose Ramirez is a superstar, and it’ll be interesting to see how he manages to drive those impressive numbers up in the final two games of the series.
NEXT: Guardians Executive Gives Unfortunate Outlook For Jhonkensy Noel
