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Two days after his behavior in a benches-clearing brawl in Triple-A Reno went viral, outfielder Henry Ramos was summoned to the majors by the Diamondbacks on Sunday, his first call-up to the big leagues in his 11-year professional career.
Even discounting for the friendly offensive environment in Triple-A West and Reno in particular, Ramos has had a monster season, leading all of the minors with a .371 average to go with a .439 on-base and .582 slugging. He has 16 doubles, one triple and 12 homers in 294 plate appearances.
On Friday night, Ramos angered Triple-A Tacoma players after hitting a home run, apparently appreciating the shot and flipping his bat. In video that made the rounds on Twitter, Ramos is seen jawing with Tacoma infielders on his way around the bases before eventually flinging his helmet at an opposing player.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said that while Ramos behavior was “nothing that we condone,” his understanding of the situation is that there was more going on that led to the altercation than is evident in the video.
“The details are such that Henry is a very soft spoken but intense player and he felt like he had been targeted for a couple of days,” Lovullo said. “He was hit the day before the incident. He was hit the night of the incident by a 99 mph fastball on his right shoulder. He made up his mind — and I think he even talked to (Reno manager) Blake (Lalli) about it — that if he was able to hit a home run he was going to enjoy it.
“We’ve all seen players enjoy their home runs in different ways at different levels. He felt like what was not seen in the footage — and this is what a lot of people have told me — was the interaction that the catcher was having with him and the pitcher was having with him and eventually the first baseman was having with him, Henry was running around the bases and felt like at some point he was going to have to defend himself. That’s what ended up happening.”
Ramos, 29, was drafted in 2010 in the fifth round by the Boston Red Sox. After seven seasons in the Red Sox organization, he spent two years with the Dodgers before moving to the Giants in 2019. He signed with the Diamondbacks in May.
Lovullo said Ramos told him his improvement at the plate has to do with better pitch selection.
“He was at peace with every at-bat and understood what was going into and what was coming out of every at-bat and started to evaluate things the right way,” Lovullo said. “It’s obviously translated. It wasn’t something that was just a good month. It’s been a good four months of very consistent at-bats and very consistent results.”
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Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.
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