This Member of the Cleveland Guardians is Excited for the Home Opener on Friday

The Cleveland Guardians are surging to begin the 2026 MLB regular season.

If you had said that the Guardians split the season-opening series against the Seattle Mariners and then beat the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the following series, 2-1, many would've said you were crazy.

But that's exactly what happened.

On Wednesday, April 1, the Guardians finished off the series against Los Angeles with a 4-1 win, putting together arguably the team's most well-rounded performance of the year.

Following the victory, future Hall of Fame third baseman José Ramírez expressed how nice it felt that the Guardians would be heading home with a positive record.

“Feels really good," Ramírez said. "Feel like the guys played really good baseball, and it’s important to always come up on the good side when you have these types of road trips.”

He then went on to share how excited he was to be playing in front of the fans at Progressive Field and to be back home with his family.

"It’s always exciting to be home… feeling the support from the fans and seeing my family, so I’m looking forward to that," he said.

In the win on Wednesday night, Ramírez left the yard for the first time this season. His two-run home run shot came in the ninth inning of action, giving the Guardians a much-needed cushion. The ball came off his bat at 105.4 mph, going 376 feet.

The impressive part was that he was down in the count, 0-2, with two outs, finding a way to keep himself locked in on the at-bat.

This season, Ramírez is now hitting 4-for-28 from the plate, leading the Guardians in at-bats. Of his four knocks, three of them have been for extra bases, two doubles and a home run. He has also drawn two walks to five strikeouts.

With the year continuing to trot along, Ramírez is slowly inching towards becoming the organization's all-time leader in games played. The series against the Dodgers marked his 1,614, 1,615 and 1,616 games played. He is now within three games of tying Terry Turner’s franchise record of 1,619.

“It’s very important to me," Ramírez said of taking sole control of that record. "That’s one of the main things I wanted as soon as I started in this organization. I’m looking forward to accomplishing it and I’m very excited about that.”

#Guardians José Ramírez is excited to soon become the franchise’s all time leader in games played:

“It’s very important to me. That’s one of the main things I wanted as soon as I started in this organization. I’m looking forward to accomplishing it and I’m very excited about…
— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) April 2, 2026

There's no doubt Ramírez will retire a Guardian someday.

For now, he just wants to continue finding ways to help lead this team to success.

As long as he can carry his ninth-inning momentum into the home series against the Cubs, Cleveland will be in a good spot to continue finding ways to put marks in the win column.