The White Sox’ Bryan Ramos hits a sacrifice fly against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Sunday in St. Louis.
Joe Puetz/Getty Images
ST. LOUIS — Eloy Jimenez knows what Bryan Ramos got to experience this weekend.
Watching the White Sox’ top third-base prospect break into the majors, seeing his angst, enjoying his success and understanding the whirlwind of emotion took Jimenez back five years.
They were nice memories.
“It reminded me of 2019, when I first came up,” Jimenez said after he and Ramos fueled the Sox’ 5-1 victory against the Cardinals on Sunday at Busch Stadium. “He was very anxious but doing well.
“He was excited to be here. It’s a privilege to come to the big leagues, and especially when you are Latin. We have the opportunity, but not too many guys make it. But to be one of them is good.”
Ramos, called up from Double-A Birmingham on Saturday when Danny Mendick — the regular third baseman after Yoan Moncada went down with an adductor strain — landed on the injured list with a stiff back.
The Sox’ No. 4 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, Ramos made his debut defensively in the last two innings of the Sox’ 6-5 win Saturday and, in the starting lineup for the first time Sunday, lifted a sacrifice fly against Matthew Liberatore in his first plate appearance in the second inning. In a four-run seventh that broke the game open and sent the 8-26 Sox to their fifth win in nine games and second series win in the last three, Ramos singled for his first hit and scored a run.
“Last week, we had the Tommy Pham effect,’’ said left-hander Garrett Crochet, who pitched six innings of one-run ball. ‘‘Right now, we have the Bryan Ramos effect, so let’s keep it rolling.”
There was a Jimenez effect, too, in the form of a 418-foot home run to right-center against Giovanny Gallegos that broke a 1-1 tie and started that big seventh inning. As manager Pedro Grifol said, things are always better for Jimenez, who homered for the fourth time, when he’s lifting the ball and hitting it to center field and right field.
Jimenez noted the success of the Twins and Rays against him in recent series.
“So to stay that way, like in ’19, when I had the most homers I hit [31] and pretty much all my homers went to the other side, is good,’’ Jimenez said. ‘‘So hitting the ball that way means I’m getting better.”
A few lockers away, in a corner of the visitors’ clubhouse, Ramos was beaming. Like Jimenez, Ramos does his interviews in English.
“I feel like there’s nothing better than this,” Ramos said. “I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a kid playing baseball in Cuba and then was trying to sign in the Dominican Republic. Since then, that was my dream — to get to the big leagues and get a hit and all this. It’s like, I’m way too happy right now.”
Ramos said he was keeping it simple at the plate, trying to get the ball in the air for the sacrifice fly and trying to go the other way when he singled to center.
“And I get a base hit, perfect,” he said.
“I don’t want to try to be the hero; I want to work for the team. My goal was to get the ball to the other side of the field, but I got a base hit, so I’ll take that.”
Enduring a historically bad start, the Sox took the victory and their first road series win with open arms.
And they’re 2-0 with Ramos, who figures to get plenty of playing time while Mendick is on the injured list.
“Ramos is a presence out there,” Grifol said. “He looks the part when he stands in the box. It’s fun to have him here because he’s dangerous. And he can run, and he’s athletic. It’s going to be fun to watch him play.”