The Guardians seemingly dodged a bullet with José Ramírez's injury

On Thursday, Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman hit Guardians superstar with José Ramírez on the right wrist with fastball. While the injury caused Ramírez to miss Cleveland's game on Friday (a lackadaisical 5-0 loss where they mustered one hit and committed two errors) he's back in the lineup today, which is a huge sign for a Cleveland team that can't afford to lose one of its superstars.

The Guardians seemingly dodged a bullet with José Ramírez's injury

After Thursday's game, Ramírez said that he felt that Gausman didn't intentionally hit him, even though his manager felt differently. It didn't take long for Ramírez to change his mind, however, as he told Cleveland.com's Paul Hoynes on Friday that he felt that Gausman's plunking was intentional.

“I was surprised he hit me because we weren’t throwing at Guerrero,” Ramírez told Hoynes. “We were just trying to throw strikes to Guerrero. But he threw at me. Everyone knows that. It’s part of the game.

"The only reason I didn’t charge the mound was because I couldn’t move my right arm.”

But regardless of whether it was intentional or not, the Guardians can't afford to lose Ramírez for any period of time. He's on pace to be an All-Star for the seventh time in his career, and he's in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career.

He's enters Saturday's game hitting .317 with 13 home runs to go along with 38 RBI and 21 steals, and also recorded the seventh walk-off hit of his career earlier in the week.

Had Ramírez been placed on the injured list, Daniel Schneemann (who got the start at third on Friday and went 0-for-3) and Gabriel Arias would likely have gotten a brunt of the playing time, and they likely would have called up a utility infielder like Will Wilson to fill Ramírez's spot on the roster.

Ramírez's plunking came an inning after Toronto's Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was hit on the forearm on a 2-2 pitch from Tanner Bibee. Guerrero was initially out of Toronto's lineup on Friday before being a late addition to the lineup.

In the end, it's good that neither superstar needs to miss any time. We'll just have to wait and see if there's any retaliation the next time they play.