CLEVELAND - In the Cleveland Guardians' 10-1 road win over the Pittsburgh Pirates last Tuesday, Josh Naylor ripped a pair of home runs to lead his team's offense.
One week later, Josh's brother, Bo, posted a standout batting night of his own.
In a July that already saw the Naylors each hit a home run in the same game, Bo connected twice off Kansas City Royals starter Zack Greinke in Tuesday night's 5-1 Guardians win at Progressive Field.
Batting in the ninth spot of the Guardians' lineup on Tuesday, Naylor broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 3rd inning by roping a 430-foot solo shot over the right-center field wall. He took the former Cy Young Award-winning Greinke deep to right-center again in the bottom of the 5th, launching a 397-foot bomb that scored two of the Guardians' three runs for the frame.
"It was awesome, the way the ball felt off the bat," said Naylor after the win. "[I] pretty much went out there and tried to put up a few good swings, and the results came."
At 23 years and 154 days old, Naylor became the third-youngest Guardians player to hit two homers at Jacobs/Progressive Field, behind Manny Ramirez (23 years, 37 days; 1995) and Jhonny Peralta (23 years, 80 days; 2005).
When asked if Josh gave him any words of encouragement throughout the night, Bo answered: "He's someone who always kind of tries to preach the same things as being confident and understanding that - he always tries to tell me I deserve to be here - and to kind of have that confidence in anything that I do. That's the kind of stuff that comes from the preparation, mentally and physically, before the game."
The younger Naylor ended his postgame press conference with "Shout out, Josh."
"We all know Bo's going to play...a lot," Guardians manager Terry Francona commented after the game. "I think we're trying to balance developing and winning. We've got another catcher that's one of the best defenders in the league. We've got another catcher that's hitting like crazy. But, I was thrilled for him tonight. That was pretty cool to watch."
In his sharing of play behind the plate this season with catchers veteran (Cam Gallagher, Mike Zunino) and rookie (David Fry), Naylor has played in 22 games and posted 71 at-bats as he tries to work his way further into the Guardians' system. Naylor is currently batting .211 with four home runs and 11 runs batted in for the season.