By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
In Keibert Ruiz’s third inning as a Rochester Red Wing, he caught Mark Payton trying a delayed steal of second base.
Payton is a hit-or-miss base stealer, reaching safely on just 56 percent of his career attempts, but the Red Wings had thrown out just 23 of the 80 runners to that point. Ruiz not only sent Payton to the dugout to end the inning, he did so on a low and outside Ben Braymer fastball.
On the sliding scale of opportunities fans had to watch a prospect at Frontier Field before their promotion, Ruiz’s nine-game residency lands between Lane Thomas’s three-game “blink-and-you-missed-it” stint from Aug. 3-5 and Justin Morneau’s extended stay for the better part of two seasons. Those who saw Ruiz in person may, depending on his performance at the major-league level, have an “I remember him when…” story for years to come. Those who missed out may rue the weather forecast, overtime at work or another obligation that kept them from the ballpark.
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The anticipation surrounding Ruiz’s Nationals debut on Monday night is supported by his torrid Red Wings tenure. The 23-year-old batted .308 with a .942 OPS, homering five times and driving in 14 runs. He homered in his team debut, doubled three times on Aug. 19 and became the first Red Wing to compile back-to-back multi-home run games since at least 1999 when he accomplished the feat on Aug. 24-25.
Ruiz, a switch-hitter who has hit 20 of his 21 home runs this year against right-handed pitching, bats over .300 from both sides of the plate. He also walked more times (seven) than he struck out (six) for Rochester.
Washington general manager Mike Rizzo accepted the Los Angeles Dodgers’ trade deadline offer for future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer and speedster Trea Turner over the San Diego Padres’ bid largely because of Ruiz. Rizzo termed Ruiz “the main cog that we were trying to get,” preferring the Valencia, Venezuela native over Padres No. 2 prospect Luis Campusano.
More importantly for the future-focused Nats, Ruiz is catching Josiah Gray, the other prize return in the Scherzer-Turner deal, on Monday. Gray, also 23, has a 2.89 ERA in five Nationals starts and has struck out 29 batters in 28 innings. Freddie Freeman, Vladimir Guerrero and Bryce Harper combined to bat 0-for-9 against the Le Moyne College graduate.
As the young battery attacks the Philadelphia Phillies’ lineup, Ruiz is already known as a proven game-caller. The Red Wings owned a 3.35 team ERA with Ruiz behind the plate.
“I’ve gotta give credit to Keibert,” Braymer said after his six-inning, two-hit outing ten days ago. “He is absolutely phenomenal, behind the plate and at the plate. He does a tremendous job of being a quarterback back there and staying calm and cool in all situations. There’s a lot of added comfort for a pitcher when you have a guy like that behind the plate.”
Braymer threw after a two-inning opener that night, as major league rehabber Austin Voth started the contest. It was Braymer’s third mid-game entrance of the season after starting all 26 of his outings in 2019. Ruiz, he noted, made for an easy adjustment.
“He is extremely talented and just has a natural gift, in my opinion, for the feel of a game and how to handle a game, as far as calling pitches and stuff behind the plate,” Braymer commented. “I’d say it was pretty seamless.”
The Nationals’ season has been anything but seamless, prompting the very deconstruction of the 2019 World Series team that brought Ruiz and Gray to the nation’s capital. Washington believes its new core, led by 22-year-old All-Star Juan Soto, can soon compete for another championship.
The hype is certainly burgeoning in D.C., with an abundance of eyes on Nationals Park Monday night. Gray, who pitched to Ruiz twice for Triple-A Oklahoma City before the deal, is looking forward to the evening almost as much as the fans are.
“It’s going to be really fun,” Gray told reporters on Sunday, according to The Washington Post. “I’m sure tomorrow will be just that first glimpse of future things to come and have a lot of fans, a lot of front-office people, coaches really excited.”
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