PITTSBURGH -- Asked to describe his swimming prowess, Kyle Manzardo used a legend for scale.
¡°I¡¯m no [Michael] Phelps. I can get around all right in the water,¡± Manzardo said with a chuckle.
Evidently, that applies with his baseball game, too. Manzardo crushed a solo homer off Paul Skenes on Saturday, in the Guardians¡¯ 3-0 win over the Pirates, that landed in the Allegheny River behind right field on a couple of bounces.
Manzardo¡¯s homer marked the first time a Cleveland player homered into the river since PNC Park opened in 2001, in the team¡¯s 26th game at the ballpark. It was the 82nd instance overall.
¡°Anytime you hit a ball that leaves the stadium, it feels sweet,¡± Manzardo said. ¡°I can¡¯t say that I've done something like that many times, but happy it happened.¡±
Manzardo had not yet relived the homer on video by the time he met with the media postgame, but it was a crucial swing for the Guardians in Saturday¡¯s win. Cleveland led 1-0 when he drove a first-pitch splitter from Skenes in the seventh inning a Statcast-projected 411 feet over the right-field bleachers.
It was also a big swing for Manzardo, who entered this weekend¡¯s series against Pittsburgh in a 2-for-23 stretch, dating to Cleveland¡¯s series against Chicago last week. The homer was his fifth this season and his first since April 10, against the White Sox.
As a lefty with power in his bat, Manzardo is a key presence in the heart of the Guardians¡¯ order. So is Nolan Jones, who also had a big game on Saturday while making his first start of the season in the No. 2 spot in the order. The right fielder reached base three times by going 2-for-3 with a double, a single and a walk.
Jones entered Saturday hitting just .140/.275/.209 in 17 games this season, his first back with the Guardians after they reacquired him from the Rockies on March 22. He¡¯s also had some tough luck, as his underlying numbers show, that suggest he¡¯s due for a turnaround.
Nolan Jones advanced metrics (entering Saturday)
Average exit velocity: 94.5 percent (95th percentile)
Hard hit %: 59.3 percent (95th percentile)
Chase rate: 23.1 percent (74th percentile)
BB rate: 15.7 percent (91st percentile)
¡°We all want hits. It¡¯s the name of the game, right?¡± Jones said on Friday. ¡°But trying to just keep doing what I'm doing. I feel like I'm hitting the ball really hard. I feel like I'm having good at-bats. And I think it's just sticking with it and being patient.
¡°We¡¯ve got [142 games left], so I think just sticking with what I'm doing. I feel like it's working and the hits are going to start coming.¡±
Jones was proved prescient. He singled in his first plate appearance Saturday, on a line drive to center that had a 96.0 mph exit velocity. He grounded into a 6-3 double play in his second plate appearance, in the third inning, on a 107.1 mph ground ball to shortstop Jared Triolo.
His double off the top of the right-center-field wall in the sixth had a 102.8 mph exit velocity.
There has been some swing and miss in Jones¡¯ game this season. He entered Saturday with a 31.4 percent strikeout rate (10th percentile). But he¡¯s simultaneously hitting the ball hard and taking his walks. That¡¯s a tried and true recipe for success.
He¡¯s also healthy, after playing just 79 games with Colorado a year ago while going on the 10-day injured list twice with a low-back strain.
¡°My body was the main concern of mine, I felt like last year,¡± Jones said. ¡°Even when I came back and I would square a ball up, I wasn't hitting it very hard. I couldn't really do it consistently either day to day. And so I think that over this three-week stretch of being able to hit the ball hard ¡ I haven¡¯t been getting hits, but being able to show up and feel good and put good swings on balls and hit the ball hard keeps me positive.¡±
Jones¡¯ performance on Saturday came with his mom, dad, fianc¨¦e and 8-month-old daughter in attendance, as well as his fianc¨¦e¡¯s friends and family. Jones is from Langhorne, Pa., across the state near its border with New Jersey.
¡°Obviously, a slow start for me,¡± Jones said. ¡°I¡¯m trying to do what I can. I feel like it¡¯s starting to come together a little bit. I¡¯m hitting the ball a lot harder. It¡¯s great. I get to look up and see my daughter and my family. It¡¯s cool.¡±