CLEVELAND -- It¡¯s been a long, grueling wait, but Steven Kwan¡¯s slump may finally be behind him. You know, the 0-for-4 slump that he endured for two hours on Friday night before logging two extra-base hits on Saturday afternoon at Progressive Field.

Yes, Kwan¡¯s performance brought his average up to .390, allowing the dreams of eclipsing the coveted .400 threshold to remain. But his solo homer in the Guardians¡¯ 6-3 victory over the Blue Jays also pivoted the attention away from his ability to simply get on base and shined a brighter light on his sudden outburst of power.

That outburst didn't start or end with Kwan in the series-clinching victory, though. He was one of four Guardians to hit a home run, joining Bo Naylor, Jos¨¦ Ram¨ªrez and Daniel Schneemann as Cleveland tallied all six of its runs via the long ball.

It was a great way to start a new hitting streak after Kwan's 14-game stretch came to a close on Friday.

Kwan has played in 48 games this season, sporting a .390 average and a .564 slugging percentage. The last player to have at least a .390 average and at least a .550 slugging percentage in the Majors was Cody Bellinger in 2019 (his NL MVP season). The last Cleveland player to do so? Toby Harrah in 1982.

¡°I mean, he helps everyone on the team get better, just watching him go about his business in the cages, on the field,¡± Schneemann said. ¡°Defense, offense, both of those things, he¡¯s the best in the world at.¡±

Kwan entered Saturday just 14 plate appearances shy of being a qualified hitter. Once he reaches that mark, the Major League leaderboards are going to be shaken up. We all know he¡¯ll be well ahead of Shohei Ohtani¡¯s current .322 average that leads the Majors, but what many may not realize is that Kwan is also going to be competing for a top spot in OPS.

If Kwan was a qualified hitter at the time of the last out of Saturday¡¯s game, the leaderboard would¡¯ve looked like this:

Aaron Judge, 1.113
Shohei Ohtani, 1.026
Steven Kwan, 1.013
Juan Soto, .993

One of these things is not like the others. Or is it?

Earlier this week, Kwan scoffed at the idea of being described as a ¡°power hitter,¡± and maybe that¡¯s the right response, considering he entered the day with the third-lowest hard-hit rate in the Majors (minimum of 175 batted balls) at 21.6 percent -- ahead of just Nicky Lopez (18.4 percent) and Sal Frelick (18.2 percent). But no matter what the metrics say, the stat line tells the bigger story: Kwan has much more power this year than in the past.

He actually added more power this year than any other hitter in the Majors. Entering Saturday's game, Kwan had -- by far -- the largest increase in slugging percentage among batters with at least 400 plate appearances last year and 150 this year, going from .370 to .545.

If you¡¯re a visual learner, let¡¯s look at it this way:

2022: six homers, .400 slugging percentage, 638 plate appearances
2023: five homers, .370 slugging percentage, 718 plate appearances
2024: six homers, .564 slugging percentage, 217 plate appearances

¡°He worked on it,¡± Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. ¡°I mean, he made a conscious effort to work on impacting the ball just like a lot of our guys. ¡­ Kwanie really took that to heart. So you put an elite contact hitter who also worked on impacting the ball. He knows which pitches to try and impact and he knows which pitches to just get out there. He¡¯s a complete hitter.¡±

Kwan turned on a sinker over the heart of the plate from Blue Jays starter Jos¨¦ Berr¨ªos, sending it a Statcast-projected 362 feet over the right-field wall for his career-high-tying sixth blast of the year. That was after he immediately put his one-game slump behind him by smacking a leadoff double down the right-field line.

Vogt joked that he¡¯s running out of superlatives to describe what Kwan has done this year. This was a day after he guaranteed that his leadoff hitter would begin a new hitting streak just hours after the last one ended. We may not know how long this streak will last, but one thing is for sure: The slump is over.

¡°He just hits,¡± Vogt said. ¡°It may not be the only streak he has all year.¡±