CINCINNATI -- As Heliot Ramos finished an exuberant jog around the bases, Mike Krukow noted that it shouldn't be a surprise when the Giants left fielder goes the opposite way. Ramos, Krukow reminded everyone, is the only right-hander to ever hit a homer into McCovey Cove. It turns out that Ramos is often thinking about that blast, too.
"I'm not even going to lie," he said, smiling. "The 'splash' gave me a lot of confidence last year, too, but I always knew that I had that pop, that power [the opposite way]. I just needed to make it better and polish it."
Ramos gets the Giants on the board with the first homer of the season 💪 pic.twitter.com/9YDrx9AlQ4
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) March 27, 2025
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Ramos always has had swagger, but last year the results caught up, landing him in the MLB All-Star Game and securing an everyday job in the big leagues. He hit 22 homers and had a wRC+ of 120, but you didn't have to dive too deep to find a troubling trend. Against lefties, he was basically Aaron Judge. Against righties, he at times looked like he was headed for life in a platoon.
The Giants will give Ramos every opportunity to show that he can be the same guy for 162 games, and the early returns are positive. Wilmer Flores had the game-winner on Thursday, but the Giants were only hanging around because of Ramos, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth that cut the deficit to one and helped knock Cincinnati Reds starter Hunter Greene out of the game after five innings. The Giants ended up winning 6-4.
"With the way he was throwing, it just felt like we were lucky to get a hit, let alone a run off him," Giants manager Bob Melvin said. "He was just throwing his fastball by everybody and slider just enough to get you off a 100-mph fastball. As the [Ramos] at-bat went along, you're like, these at-bats usually end up pretty good for the hitter when you're making him work like that. There's a little frustration that comes in, too, having to throw that many pitches.
"He was not trying to pull him, because of the velocity, and he finally got a ball he could handle. We've seen him hit the ball to right-center field, so it was just staying with his approach the entire at-bat."
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Ramos fell behind 1-2 before taking two pitches to work the count full. Then the fun started.
Greene's four-seamer was the best for any NL starter last year by some metrics, and he threw Ramos seven straight, with five being fouled off in a row as the battle got to an 11th pitch. All were 98 or 99 mph, and Ramos kept making contact.
"In my mind I'm like, 'Damn, how am I not getting to the fastball? This is insane, he's throwing it right there, I feel on-time, my body feels good,'" Ramos said. "But I didn't get off my plan, obviously. I was just trying to stay compact and just put the ball in play."
Ramos figured Greene might at some point elevate a fastball or go away with a slider, but he also knew that with Jung Hoo Lee on first, he probably didn't want to issue another walk to bring the tying run to the plate. Ramos told himself to keep an up-the-middle approach, and when the 11th pitch came in at 98.7 mph, down and away, he put a quick swing on it.
The ball kept carrying and carrying, as has often proven to be the case with Ramos' fly balls. It landed in the second row, stunning Greene, but not Ramos.
"Yeah, I knew it was gone," Ramos said.
The homer came on Ramos' first Opening Day. A year ago at this time, he was in Triple-A, having been surprisingly optioned early in camp. He ended up carrying the lineup for long stretches of the summer, but the second half also showed him there were adjustments to be made.
Ramos spent the whole offseason working on his approach against right-handed pitching, and did the same this spring. He had a .673 OPS against righties last year, but he's confident much better days are ahead. He'll have to wait a bit to get another test, though.
The Giants face left-hander Nick Lodolo on Saturday, meaning Ramos will be atop the lineup. He's never lacking confidence, but he'll have a bit extra the next time out after putting Greene in his book. He said the whole team should feel good about Thursday's result and build off the win.
"I feel like we never gave up," Ramos said. "We struck out [17] times but we never gave up. We have a pretty good team, we have a pretty good set of players. I think it's just [going] up from now. He's one of the best pitchers in the National League. Not everyone is like that, so they have to watch out, for sure."