If You're Just Getting Acquainted with the Cleveland Indians, Enjoy Jose Ramirez

In the top of the eighth inning in Cleveland's ALCS clincher against Boston on Monday, Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez hit what looked like a sure double deep to right field. Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts, though, turned his back, chased it down, and caught it over his shoulder. Amid the replays and the requisite shot of a grateful Koji Uehara, the TV crew found time to cut to a quick shot of Ramirez returning to the dugout. Even after the ball was caught, he had kept running at something close to a full sprint; he neared the steps with the look of a player rounding second. He seemed focused, eager, and not the least bit bummed out.

There were obvious explanations for Ramirez's demeanor. For one thing, Cleveland held a 4-2 lead and was six outs away from advancing. For another, Ramirez had put together a hell of a series: five for ten with a double and a pair of walks, four runs scored, fine defense. A couple of innings earlier, his walk set up the Coco Crisp homer that gave Cleveland its third and fourth runs. He had plenty to be happy about, the near-two-bagger notwithstanding.

More fundamentally than all this, though, the slumped-shoulders shucks seems not to be a part of Ramirez's physical vocabulary. If one thing doesn't work out, he makes sure something else does. In the bottom of that same inning, Betts smoked a grounder down the line with a runner on first, and Ramirez got his revenge. He dropped to one knee, smothered the ball on a backhand, rose, and whipped a throw to second for the force. This time, the cameras stayed on him for a while as he strutted around the dirt. Translated into words, his expression might have read simply: Yup.

As the second round gets started—Game 1 of the ALCS is tonight—the Indians are the least famous of the four remaining teams. Casual fans checking in on who's facing those big boppers from Toronto could be forgiven for missing Ramirez as they Cliff-Note the Cleveland roster: sunbeam of a shortstop Francisco Lindor, former Cy Young-winner Corey Kluber, two-time champion Terry Francona and his new favorite toy, bullpen ace Andrew Miller. But though subtle pleasures abound—Miller's magnetic slider is not to be missed, nor is Lindor's ability to somehow let go of a throw without catching the ball first—Ramirez may put on the most consistent show.

A 5'9" bundle of doughy muscle, with plump cheeks and fast reflexes, he moves in full-bodied bursts. Each throw and swing, from the right or left side, has heft to it. He doesn't hit many homers, but he does everything else: gets on top of eye-high fastballs, stings line-drives, starts rapid-fire double plays, swipes bags and loses his helmet in the process, revealing a blazing tangle of bleached hair (which injured starter Carlos Carrasco sometimes takes care of). In the lineage of Adrian Beltre and Josh Donaldson—two of October's more notorious third baseman—Ramirez, who can play just about anywhere, seems built for the urgency of that position, not so much playing in a baseball game as tearing through it.

A baseball postseason can do a lot of different things—crown a deserving champion or an undeserving one, distill a seven-month run to a moment of brilliance or controversy—but one thing it always does is get good but overlooked players in front of a number of viewers commensurate with their abilities. For at least the next few days, everybody will get to watch Jose Ramirez, and everybody will get to have a little more fun.