José Ramírez continues to climb Guardians’ leaderboard with incredible start 

Two weeks ago, José Ramírez’s batting average bottomed out with a .131 average after an 0-for-4 showing against the Kansas City Royals. 

That feels like it happened two years ago, not two weeks ago. 

Ramírez put even more distance between himself and that batting average on Sunday thanks to a two-homer game against the Orioles in Cleveland’s 8-4 win that gave them the series win over the Orioles. 

With the homers, Ramírez passed Earl Averill for the second-most longballs at home by a player in Cleveland franchise history. His homers against Baltimore were his 137th and 138th home longballs, which now trails only Jim Thome (184). 

Oh, and he leads all of baseball with 10 stolen bases. Just another month for the future Hall of Famer who is one of the greatest players in Cleveland baseball history.

José Ramírez is breaking Guardians records that were thought to be untouchable 

While most of the records Ramírez has been breaking this season have been on the macro level, he’s also breaking some single-season records as well. 

With his homers on Sunday, he became the ninth player in MLB history to record 10+ steals and 5+ homers through a team’s first 23 games. But, in a bit of a unique wrinkle, he’s the oldest player to ever do so (33-year-olds). The last two players to do so have been Oneil Cruz and Elly De La Cruz, who are both in the 20s. 

He’s also just nine home runs and three stolen bases away from becoming the ninth player in MLB history to record 300 home runs and 300 steals. 

Ramírez’s first homer on Sunday was an absolute ambush, as he jumped all over a first-pitch fastball from Trevor Rogers at the start of the fourth inning and sent it 408 innings to left field. 

While plenty of the 138 home runs that he’s hit at Progressive Field have come on “good” pitches, plenty of them have also come on meatballs in the middle of the lineup. 

Rogers’ pitch on Sunday was the latter. 

His second home came an inning later when Rogers left a changeup up and Ramírez made him pay with a homer that landed in the home run porch in left. 

“I feel like I have to stick to my approach,” Ramírez said after the game, per MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins. “Thanks to the experience that I have in this game, I can anticipate a little bit what the attack is going to be.

“I’m always going to stay committed to my strengths. I’m always going to be ready for the fastball and able to execute it.”

Last year Ramírez won his sixth career Silver Slugger thanks to a diverse skillset highlighted by power, contact and speed. All three of those things have been extremely evident this season in the time since he woke up from his slumber across the first week of the season. 

While the Guardians’ quiet offseason was a bit frustrating, Ramírez’s extension was a clear win that all but confirmed that’s going to be at the top of every Guardians’ record by the time his career is said and done. 

He got a step closer to breaking one of those records on Sunday. 

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