The Official Site of Hanley Ramirez

Tue, Jul 1st 2008, 10:02

Hanley does it again

For the second straight game, with the Marlins trailing in the bottom of the ninth inning, Hanley hit a one-out home run to tie the ball game. Monday’s big fly came against Nationals reliever Jon Rauch, who also gave up the game winning home run to Josh Willingham in the 10th. Hanley’s clutch blast was his 19th of the season, and came after Hanley fell in an 0-2 hole.

“I was relaxed,” said Ramirez, who admitted Sunday he told himself he needed to do something before his ninth-inning at-bat. “I started 0-2, got the count to 2-2 and it was just swing and see what happens.”

What happened was a long home run into the left center field seats that propelled the Marlins to another walk-off victory. The last player to hit game-tying home runs in the ninth inning in consecutive games was Gary Gaetti of the Twins on May 17-18, 1989.

“When you are 0-2, you just have to battle and fight him. I was feeling more comfortable with each pitch,” Said Hanley. “To do something like that feels great, you can’t do that everyday.”

Highlights and recap….