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The moment was uplifting on its own merits, Keibert Ruiz ripping an RBI double down the right field line in the bottom of the first Thursday night to drive in the Nationals’ first run of the game. But upon reaching second base, the 26-year-old catcher immediately looked toward the stands behind home plate, flashed a wide smile and waved at the group that was simultaneously cheering and crying at what just happened.
Jose and Leidis Ruiz have followed their son’s career every step of the way, providing him every opportunity they could in their native Venezuela to learn and play baseball, get signed by the Dodgers as a teenager, then make his major league debut in Los Angeles in 2020, get traded to the Nationals in 2021 and sign a $50 million contract extension in 2023.
But Thursday, remarkably, represented the first time they had been able to watch him play any ballgame, at any level, in person since 2015 when Ruiz first began as a professional with the Dodgers’ Dominican Summer League club.
“I can’t believe it,” Ruiz said following the Nats’ 8-7, 10-inning win over the Braves. “They had to wait for, what, maybe 10-11 years to see me play for the first time, even here in the big leagues. That’s amazing. I can’t describe it.”
It’s not like the Ruiz family hadn’t been trying all this time to watch him in person. They applied for travel visas on five separate occasions over the last decade and were denied each of the first four attempts. Finally, last week they got the news they worried they might never receive and made preparations to fly to Washington for the first time.
“This is something I’ve been asking god and praying to god every day, to be able to watch my son in the big leagues,” Leidis Ruiz said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. “We’ve been trying. This is the fifth time we applied. We finally got the opportunity to be here. … This is something I’ve always been wishing for: To see Keibert on the biggest stage in baseball.”
Ruiz has been able to go home to Venezuela each offseason, but his family had not previously been able to make the return visit. They had never met their young granddaughter until this week.
How did the Nationals catcher stay calm through it all, especially when he took the field Thursday night knowing they were there in the stands?
“I was nervous,” he admitted. “It feels like my MLB debut with them over there. I can’t describe that moment. I just think of all the sacrifices they made for me. This is special.”
Ruiz rewarded them with an all-around performance. In addition to his first-inning RBI double, he drove in another run with a fourth-inning single. And his tag of Austin Riley at the end of a 9-4-2 relay in the top of the ninth prevented Atlanta from scoring what would’ve been the go-ahead run and set the stage for his teammates to win in walk-off fashion one inning later.
How important was it for Ruiz to play well in this particular game?
“Really important,” he said. “I wanted to show them the best that I have.”
Jose Ruiz couldn’t stop smiling as he spoke to reporters moments after his son escorted him into the first major league clubhouse he had ever set foot inside.
“This is something that we dreamt of since he was little,” the father said, with Ortiz interpreting. “Baseball has always been his passion. I worked hard, and he got the opportunity to play baseball. And now that we’re here, thanks to god. And I also want to thank the Nationals organization for giving him the opportunity to pursue his dreams and to keep pushing him forward.”
It remains to be seen how long the Ruiz family stays in D.C. They have another son, still only 15, back in Venezuela pursuing his own baseball dream. But if it’s up to the current big leaguer in the family, this trip will last quite a while.
“I’m going to talk to them. However long they can (stay). It doesn’t matter the time,” Ruiz said. “If they want to stay here the whole year, yeah they can.”
