CLEVELAND -- The Guardians’ five-game offensive skid is in the past. Now, the team has to hope the momentum it gained on Saturday night doesn’t fade away just as quickly.

The Guardians have struggled with consistency: just when the team looks like it's getting back on the right path, it has fallen into the same offensive woes it's seen on and off since the second week of the season. But a 4-3 victory over the Twins at Progressive Field backed by Steven Kwan’s first homer of the year in the seventh inning may finally be the launching point the bats have been searching for.

The odds were stacked against them. The Guardians were facing one of baseball’s hottest hurlers in Sonny Gray, who entered the day with a 0.77 ERA. But Cleveland was more patient on Saturday than it had been during the skid, drawing three walks in a three-run fourth inning that was highlighted by a heads-up baserunning play from José Ramírez, who reached third base on a ground ball to … third base.

“I wouldn't say we knocked his socks off,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said of Gray. “We made the most of what we got."

After Cleveland took a 3-0 lead, the Twins had tied it up by the bottom of the seventh. But when Kwan launched the go-ahead blast to right-center field, the dugout erupted, exulting in the relief of getting this monkey off the team’s back.

Over the previous five games prior to Saturday, the Guardians averaged 1.8 runs per game and did not hit a single home run. Entering the day, they had 17 long balls on the year. On Friday night, the Twins homered for the 17th consecutive game. The Guardians had slashed .160/.230/.184 since last Sunday, and had dropped 12 of their past 17 games. After an offensive breakout, there was plenty of reason for the club to feel some relief.

But despite these struggles, Kwan said the offense hasn’t felt rattled.

“I think [Francona] does a really good job of not hitting the panic button and not allowing us to hit the panic button,” Kwan said. “As well as older guys like José [Ramírez] and Amed [Rosario]. It’s business as usual with them, which is really good. So, as the younger guys, we kind of follow their suit and say, ‘OK, this is baseball. It’s part of it. It’s baseball. It’s a small sample size. Just keep rolling.’”

The Guardians have a long way to go. They still racked up just five hits in Saturday’s win, with Josh Bell producing the only multi-hit effort.

“I think with hitters, you always hope that one swing will get somebody real hot,” Francona said. “Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t. Some guys work into it.”

What the Guardians have learned this year is that they don’t need much to stay in the win column. The club is now 11-2 when scoring four runs or more. It’s also 11-0 when it has the lead entering the ninth inning. The back end of the bullpen has had its fair share of hiccups, but it's been effective at holding late-game leads. Seizing those leads would certainly be easier if Cleveland could add more power to the mix, but the last thing the Guardians want to do is try to hit more home runs.

“We never talk about that. Ever,” Francona said. “I think that’s the worst thing we can do … we just need them to be good hitters. If they’re good hitters, there will be some balls that will go out of the ballpark. But if you start trying to hit home runs before you’re a good hitter, you’re not going to accomplish anything.”

Hitters like Ramírez and Bell are expected to eventually settle in and provide some pop on a more regular basis than they have in the first few weeks of the season. For now, the team is ready to build off Saturday’s success and focus solely on staying true to the identity it created in 2022.

“If I could hit a home run every time, I would definitely love to,” Kwan said. “But I think that’s our brand of baseball, is kind of pushing through. … Home runs are nice, but I think our brand of baseball is still doing well.”