Naylor's homer positive sign for Cleveland bats

CLEVELAND -- This was almost the game the Guardians needed.

Suddenly, Progressive Field had a feeling of electricity that had been missing since last season. But just as the offense heated up and Cleveland took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Guardians blew the game in the ninth and walked away with a 5-4 loss to the Angels on Friday night.

In the 2 hours and 53 minutes it took to complete the series opener, Cleveland put together a tale of three games:

1. The offense is back

Not only did the Guardians plate one run in each of the first two innings, they fought their way back after they lost the lead in the fourth. Last year’s team had an unprecedented never-say-die attitude that caused everyone in the building to believe that somehow it would find a way to come back late in each game. That feeling hasn’t carried over to 2023 so far.

But Cleveland started to build that again when it chipped away by scoring in the fifth on a groundout. And it definitely felt like it when Josh Naylor launched a go-ahead solo blast that traveled a Statcast-projected 442 feet over the right-center-field wall off Angels lefty Matt Moore.

The wind was taken out of Cleveland’s sails when the Halos responded with a two-run ninth inning and the Guardians couldn’t answer. But the team is trying to focus on the positive takeaways from the night.

Amed Rosario turned in a three-hit performance and was a home run shy of the cycle after he logged four hits on Tuesday night. Andrés Giménez, who was in a 2-for-27 skid entering the game, recorded his first three-hit game of the season.

The biggest takeaway was Naylor’s blast off of a southpaw. The Guardians have struggled collectively against lefties, but Naylor has arguably been the biggest offender. But as much as he’s had difficulties, manager Terry Francona insisted that Naylor is more than a platoon player and tried to keep him in the lineup against left-handed pitching regularly.

This time, it paid off.

“There was a lot more confidence going on in the lineup,” Rosario said through team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “Obviously, we didn’t get the result we wanted, but it felt like that was more like the team we normally are.”

2. The Giménez throw

The Guardians weren’t in an ideal scenario. With a one-run lead in the top of the ninth, the Angels had runners on the corners with just one out. A ground ball was hit to Giménez, who was at double-play depth at second, but because pinch-runner Brett Phillips was in motion from first well before contact was made, the Guardians stood no chance at turning a double play.

Instead of taking the out at first and letting the tying run score, Giménez attempted to nab the runner heading home, but his throw was off line, the Angels scored easily and Phillips advanced to third. With only one out, Phillips scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly on the next at-bat.

“When it’s all said and done, it’s easy to say, ‘Ah, just take the out,’” Francona said. “Because they pinch-ran, we couldn’t defend the stolen base and I actually thought it was a pretty heads-up play. [Giménez] just yanked the throw.

“I think if he throws that ball on line, everybody’s saying that’s the play of the night. So, I want to be careful when it doesn’t work condemning the play because I actually thought he was thinking.”

3. Clase’s fourth blown save

As of May 12, Emmanuel Clase had the same number of blown saves that he logged in all of 2022. It would be easy to start pressing the panic button, wondering if one of the game’s most dominant closers is losing his touch. But the one saving grace for Cleveland is that Clase’s velocity was back to its usual spot.

All year, Clase had been averaging 97 or 98 mph on his cutter. But that pitch averaged 100.1 mph and topped out at 100.9 mph against the Angels. Sure, none of this means anything since he failed to secure his save, but if he’s the ninth-inning guy, it’s essential that his stuff gets back to peak form.

And it looks like it’s trending back in that direction.

“They’ve got pretty good hitters because I thought tonight his stuff was the best he’s had all year,” Francona said. “They didn’t try to do too much, they shot the ball to right field, they got a good lineup.”