J-Ram starts back-to-back-to-back fireworks in Guards' 7th straight win

ANAHEIM -- The Guardians haven’t exactly been known for offensive firepower in recent seasons.

In their series opener against the Angels, they showed this year’s team is different than its predecessors.

José Ramírez, Josh Naylor and David Fry hit back-to-back-to-back homers in the fourth inning to lead the Guardians to a 10-4 rout of the Angels on Friday night at Angel Stadium. The Guardians became the first team to hit back-to-back-to-back homers this season en route to their seventh straight win. They’re fifth in the Majors in scoring and tied for ninth in home runs.

“We’ve been talking about this all year, that [hitting coach Chris Valaika] and the hitting group challenged our guys starting this winter on impacting the ball more, taking your shots, knowing what pitches you can drive,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “It's OK to swing and miss early in the count. We've been talking about that all year, and our guys have really responded to that. They're taking pride in it, and fortunately we're hitting some homers.”

Ramírez was the catalyst, homering in consecutive innings for his 24th career multi-home run game. He started the onslaught in the third when he got a 93.3 mph elevated sinker over the heart of the plate from Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval and demolished it a Statcast-projected 419 feet over the left-center-field fence for a two-run homer.

The ear-ringing blast was just the start of things to come.

In the fourth, Ramírez got a hanging slider from Sandoval and pummeled it 400 feet over the left-center-field wall for another two-run homer.

On the next pitch, Naylor got another slider over the heart of the plate from Sandoval and rocketed it 399 feet over the high wall in right-center.

The Angels brought in José Suarez to replace Sandoval after Naylor’s homer. On Suarez’s second pitch, Fry launched a 92.1 mph fastball into the visitors' bullpen in left field to give the Guardians back-to-back-to-back homers in a span of four pitches.

“It was pretty cool. I mean, I was fired up,” Fry said. “José hits his second one of the game and then [Naylor] goes deep. You could hear everybody in the dugout just fired up. I was just like, ‘Let’s have another good at-bat,’ and luckily snuck one into the bullpen.”

It was the first time Cleveland hit back-to-back-to-back homers since June 18, 2019, against Texas, when Jake Bauers, Roberto Pérez and Tyler Naquin did the honors.

“It’s a unique emotion,” Ramírez said through an interpreter. “It's very fun. It's very fun for the team, and I'm very happy we got to share and enjoy that.”

Such power displays have been a rare occurrence for Cleveland in recent years. The Guardians finished last in the Majors in home runs last season and second-to-last in 2022.

This year has been a different story. The Guardians have hit 58 home runs in 51 games this season, more than the Braves, Rangers and Padres, among other teams who boast multiple lauded sluggers.

Ramírez is tied for fifth in the Majors with 14 home runs, and Naylor is tied for seventh with 13 homers.

“It's no secret José and [Naylor] are our guys,” Vogt said. “... Everybody is stepping up, but when José and Naylor are going deep, that gives our dugout so much energy. They're the heart and soul of the lineup, and there's nothing better than when those two guys go deep.”

The Guardians’ power surge made for an easy night for starter Logan Allen. The 25-year-old left-hander saw his scoreless streak end at 12 innings when he surrendered a solo home run to Luis Rengifo in the first inning, but he worked his way through 5 2/3 innings with three runs allowed to win his third consecutive start.

Kyle Manzardo doubled for the fifth consecutive game and Gabriel Arias went 2-for-5 with a double while making his first career start in left field.

It all added up to the latest offensive explosion for the Guardians. After years of being defined by their pitching, they now have one of baseball’s highest-scoring and most powerful offenses.

“I think it's just constant preparation,” Fry said. “The work the hitting coaches do to get a plan for us as an offense. You saw tonight we had a game plan and a lot of guys were executing. Up and down we do a really good job of it, and the coaches keep us honest with plans and we've been doing well.”