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SAN DIEGO – Heliot Ramos got razzed by Padres fans Monday night, which put a big smile on his face. He embraced it and had fun with it. On the other hand, the treatment he has been receiving from some Giants fans is far more bothersome.
Ramos had his fingerprints all over the Giants’ 4-3 win at Petco Park. The leadoff hitter opened the game with a home run, the start of a rare four-run rally that also featured homers by Rafael Devers and Wilmer Flores, and then helped sell a controversial interference call in left field that deprived Xander Bogaerts of a second-inning homer.
Suddenly, Ramos is San Diego’s new target for boobirds, though he didn’t do anything that any other left fielder wouldn’t attempt.
“I’m just saying, ‘It’s not my fault. I’m not the one who overturned the call. Why are you mad at me? I’m just here playing,’ ” Ramos said. “Some of them were laughing and smiling. Some of them were talking a lot of trash. I’m here for it.”
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He added, “Be mad at the umpire, be mad at the fan who actually put his hand out there.”
Bogaerts’ drive off Robbie Ray barely cleared the short wall, and when Ramos reached for the ball, in front of two fans with their arms extended, one wearing a Giants shirt and the other an ABBA shirt, it appeared he simply missed it, the ball ricocheting off his glove. But immediately, his body language made it seem there was fan interference — he looked in his glove, glanced up at the fans, and motioned to the umpires that someone got in his way.
The fly ball initially was ruled a home run, and Giants manager Bob Melvin challenged the call. The play was reviewed, but most replays shown on the scoreboard suggested a reversal was a longshot because no clear contact was seen. However, when the decision finally came back from New York’s review center and was relayed over the Petco Park PA system, interference it was. Call was overturned. Bogaerts was out.
The official ruling: “After viewing all relevant angles, the replay official definitively determined that the spectator reached out over the field of play and interfered with a live ball. The spectators' actions clearly prevented the fielder from making the catch.”
Padres fans let out a roar of disapproval. Ramos let out a smile. Padres manager Mike Shildt let out a choice word or two and got ejected.
In the Giants’ clubhouse, naturally, the consensus was that the right call was made, unlike the sentiment in the Padres’ clubhouse. Ramos said the fan in the ABBA shirt extended his arm above him that slightly blocked his view — “I saw his shadow coming on top of me, so I was kind of confused about it.”
Melvin said whether the fan made contact with Ramos or not, “If your hand's over (a player), it could affect his vision. You don't see that call often, but I think it was the right one."
Giants starter Robbie Ray added, “It just seemed like (the fan) was leaning over the fence and got in Ramos' way.”
Ramos was loudly booed next time he came to the plate, which he said surprised him.
The reaction from some Giants fans, on a different matter, also surprised him.
A Ramos quote taken out of context went viral on social media Monday after websites that spend much of their manpower aggregating reported material misinterpreted what he said. Radio talk shows also played it up.
In a column by the Chronicle’s Scott Ostler, Ramos tried to defend Melvin and was quoted as saying, “Outside people don’t know anything” and fans are “against us.” After negative reaction to the column surfaced, the Chronicle tweaked it a bit to help clarify Ramos’ intent.
Nevertheless, the aggregators played it up suggesting Ramos was ripping on fans, though his point was that fans aren’t aware of all matters in the clubhouse, behind closed doors, among the players and coaching staff.
Many fans turned on Ramos, and amid the criticism back home, he made himself available before Monday’s game to three Bay Area reporters in the visitors’ dugout at Petco Park to clarify his statement, basically saying the players support Melvin and that he loves his team and city.
“I love the fans,” Ramos said, “and they always show me love in the field. I have nothing against them. Every time I’m walking in the streets with my family, they love me. I love them back. … All I wanted to say is that Bob is a great manager. That’s it. What we have going on, we were doing really well, and now things happen. I’m just trying to have Bob’s back. I’m always supporting him. Like I said, I love fans. I have nothing against them. But at the end of the day, what we have in the clubhouse, nobody knows about it. The way we’re feeling in the inner circle, nobody knows about it. That’s all I was trying to say.”
Ramos reiterated his stance after the game, after the Giants won their second in a row, which seems unfathomable in the wake of losses in 15 of 16 home games, a stretch interrupted by Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay.
When Ramos and Devers went deep, it was the first time the Giants hit back-to-back homers to open a road game since Chuck Hiller and Duke Snider did so in 1964. Ray pitched into the seventh, making 105 pitches, and was charged with three runs, all unearned because third baseman Casey Schmitt made two errors on one play.
San Diego’s big hit was Ryan O’Hearn’s pinch two-run homer. With two outs in the ninth, O’Hearn was up again with a runner aboard and flied out to … Ramos, who caught the ball and lobbed it into the crowd, with a smile.
“I was just trying to stay positive, trying to win a game,” Ramos said. “We know what we have going on here. We just want to stay in the present with the guys, play good baseball and try to win for the fans and everybody. And for ourselves.”