SAN DIEGO — When Heliot Ramos walked up to the plate in the top of the fourth inning on Monday night, San Diego Padres fans showered him with boos. When he struck out, the cheers had a little extra juice behind them.
The Giants left fielder understood, to an extent, why he suddenly had become Public Enemy No. 1 at Petco Park. But he also thought it was a bit silly.
“It was not my fault,” a smiling Ramos said after San Francisco’s 4-3 win.
Ramos was getting booed because of an overturned call in the second inning. He had reached up for a Xander Bogaerts fly ball to the wall, but it trickled out of his glove and into the seats. A long review determined that Ramos had been interfered with. Bogaerts was called out, and in a game the Padres lost by one run, that certainly mattered.
Ramos wasn’t at all surprised that the call was overturned. He said the fan who reached directly over his head blocked his vision, and replay officials in New York ruled that the fan “clearly prevented the fielder from making the catch.” But for the fans at Petco Park, no explanation would have been deemed acceptable. The boos were there for Ramos the rest of the night.
“What am I supposed to do?” he said. “I didn’t overturn the call. Be mad at the umpire and mad at the fan that actually put the hand out there, you know? It’s not my fault.”
In an odd twist, Padres fans might not have actually been the most upset fan base on Monday. Earlier in the day, Ramos found himself in the kind of fast-moving storm that seems to be the main reason social media exists in 2025.
His comments to the San Francisco Chronicle were blown out of proportion, and Ramos, who thought he was just showing support for manager Bob Melvin, was shocked to find that some Giants fans had decided he took shots at the fan base. It didn’t help that a couple of local news outlets fanned the flames without realizing that the original story quietly had been edited to clarify Ramos’ meaning.
After batting practice, Ramos stood in the dugout and said over and over again that he loves Giants fans and the city of San Francisco. He also stands firmly behind his manager, who has come under some fire because of all of the recent losses.
“I love the fans and they always show me love in the field,” he said. “I have nothing against them. Every time I’m walking on the streets with my family, they love me and I love them back. All I’m trying to say is in the inner circle — obviously not even you guys that are reporters know what’s going on in the clubhouse — all I want to say is that Bob is a great manager … I’m just trying to have Bob’s back. I’m just trying to support [him].”
It was an odd controversy for a number of reasons, including the fact that nobody should really be surprised that Giants players are supporting their manager when they still have 37 games left to play. Ramos, especially, has good reasons to be back Melvin. The previous staff had seemed to give up on him, but he turned into an MLB All-Star last year under Melvin, and the manager has had his back through some difficult times this season.
Ramos probably would not have taken as much heat had he been duplicating last season’s results lately, but entering Monday, he had gone 34 games without a homer. That changed in the first, when he smoked a Nestor Cortes pitch into the seats.
Ramos was still celebrating in the visiting dugout when Rafael Devers went deep. They became the first set of Giants to go back-to-back to kick off a road game since 1964, and Wilmer Flores made it 4-0 with a two-run shot later in the frame.
“I feel like we haven’t done that for a minute,” Ramos said.
It was the kind of explosion that has been missing lately, particularly at home, and it held up. Robbie Ray threw 6 2/3 strong innings and Ryan Walker got four outs to take the lead to closer Randy Rodriguez, who clinched a second straight win.
Ramos was in the middle of all of it, for better or worse. An inning after his homer, he was caught up in the play at the wall. An inning after that, he chased down a long Bryce Johnson fly ball to prevent a leadoff double. There was only one way for this game to end: With the tying run on first in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan O’Hearn flew out to Ramos.
Ramos said the leadoff homer was a relief after everything that happened beforehand. It hasn’t been the easiest 48 hours for the left fielder, but for the team, the two wins have allowed everyone to take a deep breath.
“We know what we have going on here, we know that we want to win games and just stay in the present,” he said. “At the end of the day I just want to stay present with the guys and play good baseball and try to win for the fans and everybody and for ourselves. I don’t think anybody wants it more than us. That’s all I care about.”
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