Ramírez knows exactly what to do with first MLB home run ball

This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SAN FRANCISCO -- As Cubs rookie Pedro Ramírez rounded the bases on Saturday night, there was only one thought running through his mind.

“The first thing that came to mind was my mom,” Ramírez said via team interpreter Fredy Quevedo Jr. “All I could think was, ‘I hope she’s watching me.’”

When Ramírez reached the visitors’ clubhouse at Oracle Park and retrieved his phone, he saw a message waiting for him from his mom, Niurka Escobar. She was indeed watching. She saw her son hit the first home run of his Major League career.

In the fifth inning of Saturday’s 6-1 win by the Bay, the 22-year-old Ramírez connected on a 1-2 slider from Giants lefty Reiver Sanmartin. Batting right-handed, the switch-hitting Cubs rookie sent the pitch rocketing over dead center at 104.5 mph. The ball carried over the wall and Ramírez’s teammates went wild in the dugout.

Ramírez celebrated as he rounded first base, gave a hard high-five to third-base coach Quintin Berry as he headed home and was all smiles as he approached the rest of the group down the dugout steps.

“Everybody in the dugout’s fired up,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s a special moment. And Pedro, that’s about as much emotion as you’re going to get from Pedro. That was cool to see.”

“I felt really happy. I enjoyed it to the max,” Ramírez said. “It was really great seeing everybody. Everybody was really happy for me.”

Since joining the Cubs, Ramírez (Pipeline’s No. 2 Cubs prospect and No. 82 on the Top 100) has continued to show off the elite exit velocities he was displaying with Triple-A Iowa earlier this season.

Ramírez entered Sunday with a 48% hard-hit rate, per Statcast. For perspective, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong led Chicago’s regulars with a 49.5% hard-hit rate. Ramírez had an average exit velocity of 92.4 mph going into play Sunday. Crow-Armstrong also led the Cubs’ everyday players with a 91.4 mph average in that category.

At Triple-A this season, Ramírez launched nine homers in 196 plate appearances while posting a .547 slugging percentage. That was a dramatic jump from last year, when he had eight homers in 563 plate appearances and slugged .386 in his campaign for Double-A Knoxville. The spike in power production this year was evident in the spring and helped put him firmly on the MLB radar.

Crow-Armstrong said it was “a blast” to watch Ramírez get his first homer in the big leagues.

“I’m a big fan of his game and him as a person as well,” said the center fielder. “We’ve spent some nice time [together] over the last few years. It was really cool. Not a bad first one either, man. That was a pretty impressive swing. He hasn’t had that many right-handed at-bats either, which says a lot about his ability. We’re all very happy for him. He’s been great so far.”

Ramírez won over teammates, coaches and Counsell during the spring with how he handled himself behind the scenes and in workouts. That has continued since his promotion, even with the playing time being sporadic. Ramírez has found a routine to stay ready for the moments he can enter a game or fill in as a starter for one of the Cubs’ main players.

“The young player who comes up and plays every day, it’s a little more rare right now -- at least it’s going to be for us, on this team,” Counsell said. “And so Pedro, he’s gotten some opportunities. A lot of them have been like, three days off, a couple days on. And he’s done a good job with that.

“Not overcomplicating it is another thing that’s important to do. Get your work in and then when it’s your turn to play, you just go do your thing.”

If Ramírez does that, he will have plenty more messages waiting for him from his mom. He said he plans on giving her the baseball from his first home run.

“She was really happy for me,” he said. “She said to keep working hard and to keep doing things well.”