CLEVELAND _ Jose Ramirez was held out of the lineup on Friday night. Perhaps he needed to let his bat cool after a scorching week and a half of hitting.
Ramirez had one hit in Thursday's 6-3 win in Baltimore, snapping a streak of nine consecutive multi-hit games.
"He hit himself right out of the lineup," Indians manager Terry Francona joked.
Ramirez was on such a torrid pace that he was one of the few Indians to play in all four games over a three-day stretch in Minnesota. He might have received a day off a bit earlier in the week, but the club wanted to keep his bat in the lineup as long as possible.
"You could tell he was dragging," Francona said. "Kid has been on the bases all (the time). The last couple days, I think he knew he probably needed one (a break), but he was swinging the bat so well."
All the while, Ramirez has built a strong case to fly to Miami for the All-Star Game in July. Entering Friday's game, he was hitting .321 with a .376 on-base percentage, 11 home runs, four triples, 23 doubles and 34 RBIs to go with seven stolen bases. According to FanGraphs, Ramirez leads American League third basemen with 2.7 WAR this season, which is tied for second in baseball behind only the Colorado Rockies' Nolan Arenado (2.8).
Only one player in Indians history has a longer streak of multi-hit games than Ramirez _ "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, who had streaks of 10 and 11 consecutive games in 1911 and 1912, respectively.
"In my opinion, he's an All-Star, and if he's not, I'm not sure who is," Francona said of Ramirez. "He's backing up last year with another. I know he's been hot, but he's a good hitter anyway. He's a good hitter that's hot right now. Even when he's not this scalding hot, he's still a good hitter. He's a .300 major league hitter."
According to the last All-Star voting update, Ramirez was second among AL third basemen with 891,731 votes, trailing the Minnesota Twins' Miguel Sano, who has 1,302,090.
