Noel's 424-foot go-ahead HR powers youthful outburst

ST. PETERSBURG -- There are some players whose bat just creates a different sound. You know it when you hear it. It stops it in your tracks. It demands to be noticed.

Guardians rookie Jhonkensy Noel has one of those bats. He put it to good use during Cleveland’s 4-2 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field on Saturday.

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With the score tied at 2 in the top of the eighth inning, Cleveland’s No. 25 prospect came off the bench and launched a slider from left-hander Garrett Cleavinger 424 feet into the left-center-field seats.

Noel had no doubts that he got all of the pitch as he flung his bat back toward Cleveland’s raucous dugout. But all you needed to do to know that was listen.

“That was loud,” manager Stephen Vogt said.

“That was electric, coming off the bench to hit that ball,” second baseman Andrés Giménez said. “I think it was 110 [mph] or something.”

Actually, that ball came off of Noel’s bat at 110.8 mph. That is the second-highest exit velocity on a home run by a Guardians player this season, trailing only the 115.4 mph exit velocity created by -- who else? -- Noel with his dinger against the Royals on June 29.

The clutch go-ahead clout was Noel’s fourth in just 35 at-bats since debuting on June 26. After logging a .937 OPS over 258 at-bats at Triple-A Columbus this year, he owns a matching .937 OPS through his first 14 games in the big leagues.

“I know I have the talent,” Noel said via team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “I just have to get myself ready all the time to be able to help the team. ... I know I have the tools to help the team win.”

The 22-year-old Noel isn't the only newcomer doing his best to inject some life into the club’s scuffling offense.

There is also infielder Angel Martínez, the club’s No. 9 prospect, who has only 12 Major League games under his belt and has been a constant near the top of the Guardians’ lineup since being recalled on July 4. He has an .886 OPS through 36 at-bats this month, a number he boosted when he led off the fifth inning by clubbing a splitter from right-hander Zack Littell deep into the right-field seats for his second tater of the season.

The homer tied the score at 1 and gave the Guardians something to cheer about after they let a handful of scoring opportunities slide by early on.

“Wow, we needed that in such a bad way,” Vogt said of Martínez’s crush job. “You just felt this sigh of relief from our group.”

The Guardians needed relief after going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position through the first four innings, including a fourth frame that saw them come up empty after putting runners on second and third and nobody out.

A lack of clutch hitting has plagued Cleveland recently as it stumbled to the All-Star break. Entering Saturday, it had lost 10 of its previous 16 games. In those 10 defeats, the Guardians were a paltry 3-for-47 with runners in scoring position.

They didn’t see much progress in that area during their penultimate game before the break, with just one hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. That one knock was provided by Giménez, who yanked an RBI single into right-center field with two outs in the fifth to give Cleveland a short-lived lead.

Prior to their current funk, the Guardians were among the best in the league in RISP hitting. They are confident they will get back to doing a lot more of that in the second half of the season. And those final couple of months will likely contain more pivotal -- and loud -- hits from two of the team’s newest contributors.

“Obviously, they bring in young energy,” Giménez said of Noel and Martínez. ”They are doing a tremendous job. They are doing their routines, they are being professional, so I'm expecting many good things from them.”