Cleveland Guardians Catcher Does Something Not Done For Franchise in More Than 50 Years
The Cleveland Guardians beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 on Monday night to move to 50-51 on the season.
That win, coupled with a Minnesota Twins loss, kept Cleveland within striking distance of the Twins in the American League Central. The Guardians are 3.0 games back.
The win was fueled by rookie catcher Bo Naylor, who had his first career multi-home run game. He's now hitting .211 with four homers and 11 RBI through 71 at-bats.
He also joined some Cleveland franchise history with the performance.
Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com on Twitter:
at 23 years & 154 days old, Bo Naylor is the 3rd-youngest Cleveland player with multiple HR in a game as catcher, older than only:
8/6/1947 Hank Ruszkowski: 21 y, 269 d
5/24/1970 Ray Fosse: 23 y, 50 d
It's difficult to come up at a young age and make an impact, but Naylor has found a way to do it, especially on Tuesday.
The younger brother of Guardians slugger Josh Naylor, Bo is the No. 3 ranked prospect in the organization.
The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:
Not only will Naylor provide more offense than most catchers, he's also faster and more athletic than most players at his position. He didn't become a full-time backstop until he turned pro yet quickly took to receiving, framing and blocking pitches. He also does a nice job of running a pitching staff and used his strong arm to erase 32 percent of basestealers last season.
The Guardians will play the Royals again on Wednesday at 1:10 p.m. ET.
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