Reliever Ramirez lifts Shuckers with arm, bat

As Nick Ramirez powerfully illustrated on Tuesday night, there are not many pitchers in baseball better equipped to help their own cause.
The Brewers infielder-turned-left-handed reliever went 2-for-2 with a grand slam and gave up two hits over three scoreless innings to lift Double-A Biloxi to a 5-2 win over Jacksonville at MGM Park. He walked one and struck out one.

Ramirez (3-1) replaced starter Forrest Snow at the start of the fifth inning of a scoreless game. He worked around a pair of singles and a walk before overcoming an error by shortstop Angel Ortega to get out of the sixth.
The California native, who singled up the middle in the fifth, stepped in with two outs and the bases loaded in the sixth. He fouled off five pitches from reliever Junichi Tazawa (0-1) before connecting on the ninth offering and sending the ball over the right-field fence to open the scoring.

Ramirez retired the side in order in the seventh before giving way to Josh Uhen, who gave up two runs in the ninth before Matt Ramsey struck out the final batter and moved into a tie for the Southern League lead with 16 saves.

Drafted by Milwaukee in the fourth round in 2011 as a first baseman, Ramirez made the transition to pitcher during Spring Training. Besides playing the infield to Cal State Fullerton, the 6-foot-3, 225-pounder was 16-for-16 in save opportunities. He works with a fastball that sits at 90-91 mph and mixes in a decent changeup and curveball. 
Ramirez has a 1.59 ERA over 34 innings in 25 appearances with Biloxi. He also 4-for-12 with two homers and six RBIs, and has 49 roundtrippers over the last four seasons on the circuit.