CLEVELAND -- At 9:03 p.m. ET on Saturday night, the “Jo-sé!, Jo-sé!, Jo-sé!, Jo-sé!” chants echoed across Progressive Field. At 9:04, pandemonium ensued.
That’s all it took for José Ramírez to massively swing what was a tight pitchers' duel to that point in his club’s favor. Less than a minute after the Cleveland faithful serenaded their favorite son, their superstar responded with a swing that will live on forever, belting a go-ahead two-run home run off White Sox right-hander Sean Burke to supply the only two runs scored in a 2-0 win in Game 5 of the American League Division Series and send the Guardians to the ALCS.
Ramírez’s two-run blast barely cleared the right-field wall at a Statcast-projected 348 feet. It may as well have landed in the second deck based on the home crowd’s reaction. You could feel the building shake in elation as soon as the ball landed, with lights flickering and fireworks going off in the distance high above the corner of Carnegie and Ontario to set the celebratory scene.
The party went on long after he rounded the bases. After celebrating with his teammates, a stadium-wide chorus produced a curtain call as Ramírez was pushed out to the top of the Guardians’ dugout. He acknowledged the raucous sold-out crowd by lifting his right hand up in the air.
Just like fans in Cleveland will never forget Saturday’s historic 12-strikeout performance turned in by starter Gavin Williams while pitching just 48 hours after closing out Game 4, they’ll always remember the swing by Ramírez that delivered the Guardians to the ALCS.
“He’s just that type of special,” Guardians outfielder Jo Adell said. “Every time he’s up there, I know we have a chance. He’s the heartbeat of this team. He’s the heartbeat of Cleveland. It’s unbelievable.”
Ramírez’s blast was the sixth by a Cleveland hitter in a winner-take-all game, joining Jim Thome (two) and Travis Fryman (one) in Game 5 of the 1999 ALDS, Rajai Davis in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and Lane Thomas in Game 5 of the 2024 ALDS. He’s also the first Cleveland player to homer in consecutive postseason games since Francisco Lindor in 2018 (ALDS Games 2 and 3), and the first Cleveland player to homer in two straight postseason games when facing elimination in both.
What made the homer all the more ridiculous was the pitch location. Ramírez golfed out a 78 mph knuckle curveball from Burke that was well below the zone at just 0.74 feet above the ground. That’s the lowest pitch he’s homered on in his career, including the postseason, and the lowest pitch anyone has hit for a homer in the postseason in MLB under pitch tracking (since 2008).
“That was a good pitch, and obviously a better swing by Ramírez there,” said White Sox manager Will Venable. “That’s what he does. He does special things, especially in high-leverage spots in these big moments. That’s what we saw tonight.”
Statcast may have registered Burke’s pitch as a curveball. Ramírez, however, had a different classification for it after the game.
“Come on! You know!” Ramírez exclaimed with a huge smile. “It was a home run pitch!”
Just when you thought this series was over after the Guardians went down 0-2, Ramírez promptly took over. Following a hitless first two games, the 34-year-old third baseman – despite operating at less than 100 percent with lingering pain in his left wrist – did what you need your stars to do in October by transforming into an offensive force.
From Games 3-5, he ignited Cleveland to three consecutive wins by going 5-for-12 with four extra-base hits, including two homers, seven RBIs and five runs scored.
This was the type of signature postseason performance all of Cleveland knew Ramírez was capable of. Now, the whole baseball world is witnessing the greatness of a potential future Hall of Famer on the biggest stage.
“It was like, we got our backs against the wall, and he said, ‘All right, I got you,’” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s what he’s been doing for this franchise, long before I got here. … He is Cleveland. He’s Cleveland baseball.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Guardians in their quest for the franchise’s first World Series title since 1948. Up next is an ALCS showdown with the Rays, a powerhouse squad that has been the class of the AL all year long and is coming off an impressive three-game sweep of the Yankees in their ALDS matchup.
The Guardians will surely be underdogs against Tampa Bay, and that’s rather fitting for a Cleveland squad that features Ramírez, whose legendary résumé has been somewhat overlooked at times by the national audience due to playing in a smaller market. But as we saw in this series, if you have an all-time talent like Ramírez on your team, anything is possible.
“He’s been through a lot this year and we’ve been through a lot this year,” Vogt said. “We cannot wait to play [Game 1] on Monday, and I can’t wait to keep watching José Ramírez do what he does.”