Ramírez is Sept. AL Player of the Month

After slugging their teams into the postseason, the Indians’ José Ramírez and the Braves’ Freddie Freeman were named MLB’s Players of the Month for September on Monday. Ramírez led the Majors with a 1.294 OPS during the month, batting .366/.453/.841 with an American League-best 10 home runs as well as

After slugging their teams into the postseason, the Indians’ José Ramírez and the Braves’ Freddie Freeman were named MLB’s Players of the Month for September on Monday.

Ramírez led the Majors with a 1.294 OPS during the month, batting .366/.453/.841 with an American League-best 10 home runs as well as 24 RBIs. He led the way for the Cleveland offense as the Tribe clinched the No. 4 seed in the AL playoff bracket.

Ramírez finished the regular season with 17 home runs and 10 stolen bases, plus an AL-best 45 runs scored.

Freeman emerged as a National League MVP frontrunner alongside Padres phenom Fernando Tatis Jr. as the Braves won their third straight NL East title and earned the No. 2 seed in the NL. The veteran first baseman led the NL with a 1.246 OPS in September — just ahead of teammate Marcell Ozuna — batting .375/.496/.750 with eight home runs and 32 RBIs.

Freeman’s red-hot final month gave him a season slash line of .341/.462/.640 with a 1.102 OPS and he led the Majors in runs scored (51) and doubles (23).

This is Ramírez’s second career AL Player of the Month Award — he also won in July 2018. It’s also the second NL Player of the Month Award for Freeman, who previously won in September ‘16.