DENVER -- When Guardians manager Stephen Vogt saw Josh Naylor line out on a well-struck ball on Monday, he knew that his first baseman was about to turn a corner. Well, 834 feet worth of home runs later, Naylor proved that to be true on Tuesday night.

Naylor didn’t even watch the ball fly on his second homer of the night. He turned his head toward the stands on his right and flipped his bat back toward the home plate umpire. He then began a slow trot toward first base with his eyes gazing down at the dirt below him, knowing his swing was back. By the time Naylor reached first, the ball had landed five rows deep into the second deck at Coors Field.

Naylor logged his third career multi-homer game in the Guardians’ 13-7 victory over the Rockies, his first since July 18 last season. Now, Cleveland can win its fifth consecutive series with a victory in the rubber match against Colorado on Wednesday.

“You love to see him hit the ball,” Guardians starter Triston McKenzie said, “but I think when you know how hard he works and how much he’s been through just this month, to watch him go out and have [himself] a big night tonight was huge.”

It’s been an uncharacteristically long month for Naylor. After starting the year as the Guardians’ hottest hitter, he entered the night hitting just .165 with a .646 OPS in 23 games in May. His chase rate before May 1 was 30.2 percent. Since the first of the month arrived, his chase rate has jumped to 38.7 percent.

He’s been in this position before, though. Only a few weeks ago, Naylor explained how he learned to be patient and trust that results will come from his slow start to the 2023 season. Pitchers had adjusted to the success he was having this year. He knew it was only a matter of time before he made the adjustment back.

“Sometimes you get caught in the loop where you’re not doing too good and you want to help the team and you put a little more pressure on yourself,” Naylor said, “but at the end of the day, you just have to stick to what you do best and just try to be your best out there. Try to have fun. That’s the key. Try to understand what the other team is doing to you offensively and just counter that.”

Throughout the Guardians’ nine-game winning streak, Naylor’s bat was relatively quiet. It wasn’t until he lined out to shortstop against the Rockies on Monday that Vogt started to feel everything was about to turn.

“He came out and took early BP today, looked good,” Vogt said. “Working on staying through the ball, staying through the middle of the field and you saw it.”

It was as if everyone knew it was coming.

“Everyone was calling like, 'Oh yeah, he’s gonna hit a home run today,'" Guardians utility man David Fry said. “He hit two.”

It started with a Statcast-projected 396-foot, two-run shot in the top of the fifth on an 86.8 mph changeup from Rockies starter Ryan Feltner. But if there was any concern that Naylor simply got lucky with some offspeed at the top of the strike zone, he proved that his swing was back in the top of the eighth, sending a ball 438 feet into the second deck in right field.

“Obviously everybody knows who he is and what he can do,” Guardians designated hitter Kyle Manzardo said. “The dugouts are real close, man, and seeing it, I felt like I was right next to him. It was awesome.”

Naylor never tries to put too much stock into his numbers. He’s learned to go along with the ebbs and flows of the game instead of fighting against them. It’s also helped that Fry, who had another big three-run blast on Tuesday (after his team poked fun at him for face-planting as he slid headfirst into second base on a steal in the fifth), has picked up Naylor during this stretch.

In the big picture, a 23-game slump is just a blip on the radar. And the Guardians are confident those struggles are now a thing of the past.

“With a guy like him, if he has a bad day or two, you know he’s coming right back,” Fry said. “You can’t hold him down for very long.”