CINCINNATI -- The usually stoic Agustín Ramírez needed a moment.
During Gavin Lux’s at-bat in the second inning on Monday, Ramírez not only allowed a passed ball on a pitch in the strike zone but also couldn’t block a wild pitch in the dirt. The runner on base would later come around to score to give the Reds an early lead.
In all honesty, usual strike thrower Janson Junk also needed to calm down. So Ramírez, still a rookie catcher playing just his 30th game behind the dish, called for time.
Junk went on to record a quality start and Ramírez went deep in the Marlins’ 5-1 comeback victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park. Miami extended its franchise-record road win streak to 10 after a one-hour and seven-minute weather delay.
“We've been talking about responding a lot as a group, and that is, things happen during a game that aren't always the greatest, and you just have to go move past it,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “[Ramírez] did, and he hung in there. I thought, too, he did a really great job with Janson today, helping navigate him through those six innings, and then certainly, the big home run late to pad the lead some.
“[It] was a big hit in this game to make it [a] four-run game. It does a lot with the bullpen and how you can look at those last few innings. So [a] big hit, and proud of him for bouncing back from that early couple of passed balls, and then what he did with Janson tonight was terrific.”
Even though Junk didn’t have his trademark command, he gave up just one unearned run on one hit over a career-high-tying six innings with Ramírez’s help. Ramírez was able to determine which pitches Junk was able to execute and then continually called for them.
Monday marked the fifth time Junk has worked with Ramírez, his most with any backstop on the club, and the battery dropped to a 2.70 ERA. Junk credited Ramírez’s even-keel nature, which avoids overactions in key situations.
“I love throwing to Gus,” Junk said. “He gives me the confidence on the mound to execute. I trust him. In between innings, we'll talk, kind of go through the game plan about the next few hitters and stuff like that. And he's a bulldog back there, so I love throwing to him. He's a great guy, and it's nice to see him get some home runs, too.”
Although advanced defensive metrics aren’t too kind to Ramírez at the moment -- and he was replaced on defense in the seventh inning -- the Marlins believe in him as a catcher, and they want to see him behind the dish as much as possible. There is certainly room for defensive growth.
Here are Ramírez’s Statcast numbers entering Monday:
- -9 blocks above average (second percentile)
- -4 caught stealing above average (third)
- -1 framing (42nd)
- 2.02 seconds pop time (seventh)
Miami also wants Ramírez to improve at the plate while catching, and Monday was a good step forward. Here were Ramírez's splits entering the series opener:
- As catcher: .214/.261/.384 with seven doubles, four homers and 13 RBIs in 29 games
- As DH: .264/.311/.529 with eight doubles, one triple, nine homers and 24 RBIs in 35 games
With Miami trailing 1-0, Ramírez was in the middle of a two-out, two-run rally in the fifth.
Xavier Edwards turned on an inside pitch for a one-out double, then advanced to third on Jesús Sánchez’s flyout to right. He scored on Ramírez’s RBI double to the right-center gap. Liam Hicks, who served as the club’s designated hitter, followed with a ground-ball single to right. Ramírez chugged home and just avoided catcher Tyler Stephenson’s tag, a call which was upheld on a replay review.
Following two more runs in the sixth, Ramírez extended the lead to 5-1 in the seventh with a solo shot to the second deck in left. After crushing a four-seamer foul, Ramírez didn’t miss a center-cut changeup on the next offering, lifting it a Statcast-projected 420 feet with a 108.7 mph exit velocity for his 14th homer of the season.
It marked Ramírez’s 31st extra-base hit in his first 65 career games, tying him with Giancarlo Stanton (2010) for the most in such a span in club history.
“I'm very excited just to hear my name involved with history with a name like Giancarlo,” Ramírez said. “It gets me very excited. So I just want to continue just playing the game the way I keep playing the game and just do more positive things.”