Guardians' Josh Naylor is as locked in as any hitter in baseball after 'riding the wave'

CLEVELAND — Josh Naylor has been "riding the wave." In baseball terms, it means trying to weather the kinds of ups and downs that can lead to both euphoria as a hitter, as well as periods of hopelessness.

And now he's as locked in as ever, riding the kind of wave that would even make Kelly Slater jealous. Though for a while, he was scraping the ocean floor.

In his first 115 at-bats of the season, Naylor hit just three home runs, and he posted a .191 average. While the entire Guardians lineup struggled to find any traction, Naylor was right in the middle of all of it. Frustration was building. It led to Naylor reminding himself of why he plays the game, and that baseball can lead to some cruel summers.

Sometimes, all you can do is ride it out, and wait for the tide to change.

"You just got to ride the wave," Naylor said. "Some days are going to be great, some days are going to be bad. You see, as a baseball player, you just keep working, you keep grinding, you keep just trying to have fun and remember it's a kids' game. I think for me personally, just taking myself out of the equation and remember why I do it — I do it for my brothers, my family, my friends. I think that takes a lot of pressure off of me [instead of] focusing on individual stats or whatever the case may be."

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Josh Naylor becomes first hitter in expansion era with three consecutive go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning

Then came this weekend, when Naylor put himself in rarefied air.

In three consecutive games, all against the Los Angeles Angels, Naylor launched go-ahead home runs, all in the eighth inning. On Friday, it was a mammoth, 442-foot solo home run. On Saturday, it was a three-run shot that highlighted a wild comeback. And Sunday, he added another three-run home run.

Three games, three go-ahead home runs, all in the eighth. According to ESPN Stats and info, Naylor became the first player in the expansion era (since 1961) to hit go-ahead home runs, all in the eighth inning, in three consecutive games.

Naylor's historic weekend didn't come about through sheer will, and simply swinging harder. He was as much about not panicking as anything, and seeing teammates, as he made his way up to the majors, work their way out of slumps.

"I think it took me a few years into baseball to kind of learn it and watch other players ride that wave and be even-keeled. It's tough," Naylor said. "It's tough as a player because you always want to be great, you always want to do great things for your team, great things as an individual.

"But I think realizing that this game's hard enough, and if you do some cool things a certain day you'll be really happy and proud of yourself. And if you don't ... don't beat yourself up too much."

That's what the Guardians have wanted to see from him. Naylor can swing out of his shoes at times, to the point of his helmet falling off. The message and reminders have been that he has plenty of power to be productive, and over-swinging might do as much harm as good.

"When you see his helmet come off, that's not when we gets the home runs," said manager Terry Francona. "When he stays nice and fluid, that's when the ball jumps off his bat."

Metrics support Josh Naylor's 2023 breakout as real

There are some indicators that Naylor's breakout is supported, and that he wasn't swinging the bat nearly as poorly as his traditional numbers would suggest to open the 2023 season.

The best example is Naylor entered Sunday's game with a .361 slugging percentage, but based on quality of contact metrics he had an expected slugging percentage of .500, according to Statcast. That was the largest difference (in a positive way) in all of baseball, and it was an indicator that Naylor would soon be rewarded for that kind of contact.

And he was, three days in a row, all at key times in the games. Unfortunately for the Angels, they ran into that quality-of-contact correction all at once as they watched him launch pitches over the right-field wall.

And, for the Guardians, Naylor has played a major role in helping to lift a slow-starting offense — all by riding the wave.

Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Guardians at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/cleveland-guardians. Follow him on Twitter at @ByRyanLewis.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians Josh Naylor has 3 consecutive go-ahead home runs