NEW YORK — A handful of players at the Guardians clubhouse kept referring to the same thing Monday night: flip the calendar.
The team had a slow start to April. A 13-15 start to be precise. And with expectations suddenly sky-high for a club entering the 2022 season forecast to finish bottom in the AL Central, a loss record after the first full month seemed even more disappointing. That’s why Cleveland placed great value on a strong start to May.
April is in the rearview mirror, but the Guardians’ offensive problems were overwhelmingly present in the first eight innings of Monday night’s opener at Yankee Stadium. By entering the ninth, Cleveland had recorded just one hit — an Amed Rosario single in the first inning.
Silence followed on offense as it looked like the club were limping to another ugly defeat after a tough trip to Boston at the weekend. Instead, the Guardians found the spark that had carried them to so many straight wins last season and clinched a 3-2 win from the Yankees.
Steven Kwan started out with a one off single. Rosario caught a field error from reliever Clay Holmes. José Ramírez was single and Josh Naylor, as he has done against the Yankees a number of times in his career, delivered in the clutch and served a single run with two runs to right field to tie the game. After a walk from Josh Bell and a strikeout from Andrés Giménez, the Guardians got the decisive run when Mike Zunino pulled out a base-loaded free pass.
“If we’re able to do that, we’re sort of built on that,” Zunino said.
Cleveland certainly had some luck falling in its lap to help make that happen. Domingo Germán, untouchable for eight innings, was pulled after allowing Kwan a single in the ninth on his 88th pitch. And when Yankees manager Aaron Boone approached Holmes to face Rosario, it guaranteed the right-hander would have to face Naylor with the three-batter minimum rule.
“Yeah, you need things like that to run properly,” Zunino said. “You know, it’s one of those things where we were like, ‘Hey, let’s flip the calendar. Let’s make it good.’”
And without Naylor, the Guardians could not have started the month on a positive note. If they want to continue that success, he has to keep being that player.
In his last full game, Naylor went 3-on-5 with a clutch three-run double against the Red Sox. Then he delivered the game-winning single against the Yankees. He was able to remain patient at the plate, which he found difficult at times this year, especially in big moments. Here’s a look at a breakdown of his stats through April:
In total: 0.212 average, 0.612 OPS
With men on the base: 0.213 average, 0.529 OPS
With runners in scoring position: 0.179 average, 0.426 OPS
“[Hitting coach Chris Valaika] showed him some numbers with runners on base, how his aggressiveness has really increased and he needs to try to dial them in,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He doesn’t have to do any more. He just has to be the thug he is. That’s good enough.”
Following that advice proved beneficial on Monday.
“You’re going to have either a good start or a bad start,” Naylor said. “It evens out throughout the year. … I’d rather struggle at the beginning and have a great middle and great ending than have a hot beginning, average middle and bad ending.”
Slow starts have long been a part of Cleveland’s history. Last year the club went 15-14 in their first 29 games. This year it’s 14-15. And a big part of the Guardians’ identity will once again be built on comebacks, considering they already have six plate appearances to give them the lead in the ninth inning or later, which leads the majors.
Now it’s up to the Guardians to build on that momentum and prove April was just another slow start.
“I think we made it pretty clear that games in April are just as important as games any other time,” Guardians starter Cal Quantrill said. “But we fought those last three series. We milled. I think it was important for us to win this game the way we did today. Hopefully we can play a small role here and start taking a few [of] Series.”