The first inning of Friday night’s World Baseball Classic meeting between USA and Brazil had shades of Major League Baseball’s most fiery rivalry.
Moments after New York Yankees star Aaron Judge homered to give Team USA an immediate 2-0 lead, Lucas Ramirez answered back in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff homer for Brazil.
That’s right, Manny Ramirez’s son. (Specifically, the youngest of his three sons, after Manny Jr. and Manuelito.)
Wearing his father’s No. 24, Lucas sent right-hander Logan Webb’s 1-0 four-seam fastball, 392 feet to right-center at 104.1 mph.
It’s the second time this week the younger Ramirez showed off his power. He homered off two-time Cy Young award-winner Jacob deGrom earlier this week in Brazil’s exhibition game against the Texas Rangers.
Manny was a career .312 hitter, nine-time Silver Slugger and 12-time All-Star, including 11 consecutive seasons from 1998-2008, in his 19-year MLB career. He won two World Series championships with the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox (and was named series MVP for the former). He’s a top-10 offensive player in franchise history in most metrics, including on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases, RBI, intentional walks, and extra-base hits. He’s one of six players to hit more than 230 home runs in a Red Sox uniform (he hit 274).
Those are big shoes to fill.
Unlike his father, who he’s referred to in interviews as his lifelong hitting coach, Lucas bats left-handed. The Angels selected him in the 2024 draft, and he reached their High-A level last season. At 20 years old, he’s one of the youngest players in this year’s tournament.
But not the youngest, even on Team Brazil. Joseph Contreras, the 17-year-old son of 11-year MLB veteran Jose, pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief Friday night. The younger Contreras may still be in high school, but he got Judge to ground into an inning-ending double play in the second.
