The Cleveland Guardians won an impressive slugfest against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday.
The final score was 12-8, which has surprising considering Shane Bieber was the Guards’ starter and both teams have an excellent bullpen.
The offenses took over, though.
The struggling Andres Gimenez went 4-for-5 with two RBI, Steven Kwan went 3-for-6 with three runs scored and a stolen base, and Jose Ramirez also went 3-for-6 with two runs and an RBI.
The star of the day, however, was Josh Naylor.
The hulking slugger went 4-for-5 with three runs scored, a home run, a stolen base, and six RBI.
He did it all for Cleveland, and because of that, they were able to secure the valuable W.
Naylor made franchise history with his historic slugging performance.
“Josh Naylor is the 4th player in @CleGuardians franchise history to have at least 4 hits, 6 RBI and a stolen base in a game,” Baseball Reference tweeted.
Josh Naylor is the 4th player in @CleGuardians franchise history to have at least 4 hits, 6 RBI and a stolen base in a game.#MLB | #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/IjJnQv47xi
—Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) June 1, 2023
The others were Rube Lutzke in 1923 (yes, 100 years ago) and two modern contributors: Grady Sizemore in 2008 and Shin-Soo Choo a year later.
That’s some cool company for Naylor, who has been trending up in recent weeks.
His early-season struggles seem to be a thing of the past.
For the year as a whole, he is already slashing .251/.304/.443 with eight home runs.
He is back to being an average offensive player, according to his 99 wRC+.
We all know he is more than just that, but he is starting to blossom after an ugly stretch to start the season.
He had a cool 117 wRC+ in 2022, with 20 homers.
With the way he is hitting, those numbers seem well within reach.
NEXT:
Mike Zunino Finally Showed Up For The Guardians
