Overview
- José Ramírez hit a two-run home run off Sean Burke that provided the only scoring in Cleveland’s 2-0 Game 5 win at Progressive Field to clinch the ALDS.
- Ramírez homered in Games 4 and 5, becoming the first Guardians player to homer in consecutive postseason games since 2018 and the first ever to do so in back-to-back elimination games.
- Statcast recorded the Game 5 blast as coming on a 78 mph curveball 0.74 feet above the ground and projecting 348 feet, the lowest-tracked pitch homered in the postseason since tracking began in 2008.
- Ramírez finished the series with five hits, two homers, seven RBIs and six runs after an uneven regular season that followed left hamate surgery, marking a late comeback in form.
- Cleveland’s pitching staff backed his hitting with a high-strikeout effort, the Guardians erased an 0-2 series deficit to advance, and Ramírez’s winner-take-all homer joins previous Cleveland clutch blasts by Jim Thome, Travis Fryman, Rajai Davis and Lane Thomas.