In so many ways, it’s a long time since 2015 for the Red Sox and particularly for Hanley Ramírez.
This time last season Ramírez was the brooding outfielder for a Sox team that were a dreadful 32-42 and dead last in the division.
No longer brooding but ebullient, Ramírez as an important part of a contenting ball club, just capped a stellar week with his 1st American League Player of the Week award. Though he’s twice before been a POTW, both such honors came in the National League, the most recent coming over six years ago with the Marlins on June 28, 2009.
In the space of just six games, Ramírez managed:
- Not one, but two 3-run, 2-out, go-ahead home runs in back-to-back games.
- A three-home run game (each time with a man on base), thereby tying a club-record accomplished 28 times by 23 different players.
- An AL-best 5 home runs, 12 RBI, and a 1.048 slugging percentage. During the week he was also tied for first among all AL players in extra-base hits (5), was second in total bases (22) and was tied for third in runs scored.
Ramírez joins Mookie Betts, who also had a three-home run game earlier this season. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the only other years the Red Sox had two three-home run games in the same season were 1957 (both by Hall of Famer Ted Williams) and in 1999 (by Trot Nixon and Nomar Garciaparra). Ramírez became only the seventh player in Sox history with at least three home runs and six RBI in a game at Fenway Park, joining Williams, Bobby Doerr, Clyde Vollmer, Norm Zauchin, Jack Clark and Garciaparra (twice).