Alexi Ramirez has never traditionally performed well in the month of April. It has always been that as the weather heats up, so does Alexi's bat. But on Tuesday night against the A's, the Cuban Missile looked to be in his warm weather form (minus an error he picked up at short). Ramirez belted 2 homeruns (one of which was the game winner), raking in 4 RBI's on the night. Now, I don’t mean to rip on Alexi, especially after his offensive production and late inning heroics on Tuesday, but does the A's pitching staff read their scouting reports? What I mean by that is, why on earth is ANYONE throwing ANYTHING on the inner half of the plate to Ramirez?
Anyone who has watched Ramirez hit knows he has a sub-par (at best) plate approach and the inability to hit any sort of slider/changeup/curveball that’s on the outer half of the plate. For that matter, he cant do much with a fastball on the outer half of the plate either, he'll pick up the occasional soft line drive over the second baseman's head into shallow right field, but very very rarely does he drive a ball to right. What I mean to say is the man can't wait back on the baseball. He's a dead pull hitter, which can be extremely frustrating at times to watch. Baseball is a game of adjustments, it is absolutely critical to be able to wait back on a ball on the outer half and drive it the other way, sure not everyone can do it, but with Alexi it really shows a lot because most pitchers pitch him away (as they should). Like I said, not trying to rip on the guy, he has a lot of talent (when the ball is on the inner half of the plate) I was more or less just astounded that the A's pitching rotation made the same mistake twice.
The Key is learning from those mistakes.... This is obviously the walk-off dong. Cant put it there Cramer.....
Dont get me wrong, I was ecstatic that he had such a great day at the plate and won us the game. It was just something I picked up on. Thought it was interesting that the A's staff didnt make the proper adjustments. And again, give Ramirez credit for working the count to 3-1 on that walk-off, but still, with 2 outs and the bases empty, keep the ball down and away.
Now, Ramirez is still going to post a nice average and above average power numbers (despite the hole in his swing) and run production for someone his size. He'll show up everyday at short, I think he’s an outstanding defensive player. His plate approach just bothers me (ill be posting a lot more about this later on because frankly, it drives me nuts). But keep your eyes open and look for those things next time you watch the Cuban Missile hit.
Now tonight’s game was the kind of game that a good baseball team is going to come away with. They drop a heartbreaker on Monday night, come out on Tuesday looking to bounce back. Edwin Jackson did not have a good outing, he lacked control and started showing signs of his old, wild, self. The offense had one big inning in the 2nd, plating 4 men and then stalled for the rest of the game, the defense was uncharacteristically bad again (that is what has been killing us Sox fans, the lack of defensive support we've been getting all around. Just something to keep in mind). But what do good teams do when they are having a rocky outing? They fight to stay in the game and do whatever it takes to obtain the W. Edwin Jackson continued to chip away at the A's, pitching out of jams and keeping his club in contention. The offense fought and clawed back to tie the game in the 8th on a Juan Pierre single back through the middle, plating who else? Alexi Ramirez. Its that fighting and scrapping that kept things alive long enough to get to the 10th inning and prevail in the end. That’s what a good team does, they win on nights when they just don’t have it. They showed me a lot tonight, they showed heart. That’s what wins championships.... well that, and good defense (which is a topic for another time)
Rest up South Siders, lets take the rubber match tomorrow so we can enjoy our off day Thursday.
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