Hanley Ramirez Says He's Going Deep Sunday, Goes Deep Twice
After Sunday’s performance, Hanley Ramirez is now on pace to hit 72 home runs this year, and is averaging a home run once every 8.75 at-bats. Not bad.
On the game broadcast, Jerry Remy said that Ramirez was telling everyone in the clubhouse that he was going deep on Sunday, after he saw his name in the lineup at DH. He then went on to hit two massive home runs at Camden Yards, combining for a distance somewhere around 900 feet. With eight bombs this season, Ramirez now only trails Nelson Cruz (9) for the most home runs in baseball.
It’s taken Ramirez 18 games to hit 8 home runs this year. At this point last year, he only had two, and they came in the same game. Really, he’s hit 8 home runs in 17 games. If you didn’t catch that report from a week ago, Hanley came out of the Marathon Monday game in the third inning because “the cold made him dizzy”. Real life.
So, enough about how much he sucks in left field. As long as he’s mashing baseballs, the Red Sox can afford to keep trotting him out there because of what he’s been doing at the plate. No matter what defensive metric you use, it’s clear that he’s the worst left fielder in baseball. But he’ll improve over time, and the same can’t be said for the real problem here, which is how awful the Red Sox starting pitching has been, and will continue to be, unless changes are made.
PS: You know your pitching staff is a disaster when your offense spots you seven runs, and you still lose by eleven. Might want to get on that, Ben Cherington.
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