CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Looking to hit a game winning home run is one thing.
Doing it is another.
That’s exactly what Josh Naylor was looking to do and did in the bottom on the 10th Wednesday night.
“That was pretty special right there,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said.
Trailing 6-5 and with a 2-2 count, Naylor smashed an opposite field two-run homer to the home run porch to give the Guardians an improbable 7-6 win over the Twins at Progressive Field.
“I just tried to hit a homer, to be honest,” Naylor said. “I was just trying to end the game. I didn’t want to hit a single. I wanted to end it. I just wanted to win.”
Naylor swung hard his first two tries before fouling off a couple pitches and then connecting.
“I knew I could do it,” Naylor said. “I was just waiting for the right pitch and try to foul off pitches until I got the right pitch, and I got a good one late in the count and tried to do damage on it and end it. Thank God I did.”
After connecting, Naylor flipped the bat high into the air and after reaching home plate and being mobbed by his teammates, Naylor head butted Francona, who clearly knew it was coming because he put on a helmet.
Minnesota had rallied from 3-0 down to tie the game in the sixth and then score three runs in the top of the 10th to take a 6-3 lead. With chants of “cheater” raining down from fans, Carlos Correa delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI single and Max Kepler clubbed a two-run home run off Guardians reliever Eli Morgan to put the Twins on top.
The win by Cleveland, their seventh win in nine extra-inning games this season, brought them back within two games of the Twins in the AL Central standings.
Minnesota has out-homered Cleveland in the series 9-1 but they’ve split the first four games with the series finale Thursday afternoon.
“Home runs are welcome by us, but we have what we have, and they keep fighting,” Francona said. “If we can score, I don’t care how we do it.”
Case in point: the Guardians' first three runs Wednesday night were scored on a fielder's choice, throwing error and sac fly.
Cleveland jumped out in front in the first inning that saw the first three hitters single to load the bases. With one out, Franmil Reyes hit into fielder's choice bringing home Kwan. A throwing error on Twins second baseman Luis Arraez allowed Amed Rosario to score and Reyes to move up to second base giving the Guardians a 2-0 lead.
Kwan and Rosario, who combined to go 7-8 with two walks and four runs scored, led off the third inning with a single and double respectively before Josh Naylor brought home Kwan with a sacrifice fly to left to give Cleveland a 3-0 advantage.
Guardians’ starter Cal Quantrill threw eight innings, eclipsing his previous career-high of 7 2/3 innings September 9, 2021, against Minnesota, and allowed three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts. He did not walk a batter.
The Twins finally got to Quantrill in the sixth.
Gary Sanchez stroked a double off the wall in left center and Alex Kirilloff followed with a two-run homer to right center, his 1st of the season, to cut Cleveland’s lead to 3-2. Gio Urshela followed with a solo homer to the home run porch in left to tie the game at 3.
“I don’t regret either of the pitches, three in a row I guess,” Quantrill said. “I like the pitch selection. I thought [Luke] Maile called a great game… I thought the pitch selections were good in the sixth inning. They put the barrel on the ball and that was disappointing. I put us in a little bit of a bind there but I thought we bounced back well.”
Emmanuel Clase pitched a scoreless ninth.
Kwan walked to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. Rosario roped an RBI double to left to make it 6-4. Jose Ramirez flied out to shallow center before Kwan raced home on a passed ball that got by Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers to bring Cleveland within 1, setting the table for Naylor.
“It’s huge,” Kwan said of the rally in the 10th. “We have the trust in each other. We believe we can do it but when you can see it with your own eyes, you see it manifest, I think it’s really big.”
