By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The initial shock of the trade has worn off for Keibert Ruiz.
From this point forward, Ruiz said he’s intent on doing first what he can for the Rochester Red Wings and, perhaps sooner than later, for the Washington Nationals.
After all, if you’re one of the guys headed east when the Nationals send possible (probable?) Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a package deal, you’ve got to feel pretty good about the future.
Red Wings manager Matthew LeCroy sure liked what he saw on Tuesday night when the 23-year-old Ruiz made his debut in the Nationals organization.
“There’s a lot of things about this guy that you can tell are going to make him pretty special,” LeCroy said after a 3-1 victory over the Syracuse Mets.
Outfielder Lane Thomas, obtained by the Nats at the trade deadline for the St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jon Lester, also made his organizational debut and singled home the game’s first run in the fifth and finished 2-for-4.
Brandon Snyder homered in the sixth and Ruiz drove a pitch into the Wings bullpen in right in the eighth for a homer and the final Rochester run.
The power from Ruiz is to be expected. Ranked No. 1 on the Dodgers prospect list and No. 40 overall by MLB.com, he was hitting .311 with 18 doubles and 16 homers for LA’s Triple-A affiliate, Oklahoma City. He also has two homers in his brief time with the Dodgers.
After the trade on Thursday, LeCroy needed to do a little homework on his new catcher and phoned Oklahoma City manager Travis Barbary.
“The thing Travis told me is he’s so gifted at putting the bat on the ball that sometimes he tends to go out of the zone early,” LeCroy said. “They told me to just keep reminding him to find that pitch that he really likes to drive.”
Ruiz did just that in the eighth in hitting the home run.
“I was just trying to put a good swing on it,” he said. “There were a lot of emotions (playing his first game for the Wings) and I was a little too excited my first couple at-bats.”
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While the native of Venezuela looked just fine at the plate, it was his work behind the dish that really impressed LeCroy. He was handling pitchers he had never seen before, and a lot of them, and seemingly worked flawlessly.
Starter Ben Braymer was again terrific, pitching six shutout innings while allowing two hits and four walks, then four relievers worked the final three innings, but there were no real mix-ups.
“It’s extremely difficult, you’re trying to figure out the movement, what he likes to do in certain counts and you sort of learn on the fly,” LeCroy said.
“And I thought at the end of the ball game he made some good trips (to the mound) when he needed to make them so that’s a really, really good sign for us that he has a nice handle of the staff, in a really tough spot when you don’t know anybody.”
Preparation helped, LeCroy said. Ruiz does plenty of pre-game homework on the opposition.
“I like to go over where we can go with the fastball, slider, breaking ball,” Ruiz said. “I talked to the starter before the game to get comfortable.”
He also showed off a pretty strong arm in the second inning. With Mark Payton on first base, a Braymer pitch squirted away to the left of Ruiz. Payton took off for second and Ruiz pounced to retrieve the ball and gunned down the Mets runner.
“He’s going to be a little excited tonight obviously,” LeCroy said, “but I can see him being an awesome addition not only for us but for our organization.”
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