‘I gotta go ice my neck.’
That’s not the normal response from the manager of the winning team following a walk-off win. But not many walk-off celebrations are like the ones involving Josh Naylor.
On Wednesday night, Naylor blasted the Guardians into a come-from-behind, walk-off 7-6 win with a two-run home run that completed a four-run 10th inning and a wild comeback for Cleveland against the division-rival Minnesota Twins.
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Naylor sent a Jharel Cotton fastball to the Home Run Porch in left field and got just enough of it to clear the 19-foot wall. Naylor had carried his bat down the line, waiting to see if it was enough to end the game. When the ball sailed over the wall and the celebration could ensue, Naylor flipped — more like launched — his bat into the air in what was quite possibly the best bat flip in Cleveland baseball history. The bat sailed about 25 feet in the air before finally crashing back down to Earth not too far from first base.
After the game, Naylor regretted holding into the bat for so long, as he was worried he’d hit coach Sandy Alomar Jr.
“No, I should’ve done it earlier. I was too late,” Naylor said, lamenting his timing. “I could’ve hit Sandy. I should’ve done it a little earlier.”
But it was really manager Terry Francona who was about to be in Naylor’s path. After Naylor crossed home plate — a little softer than most hitters do in walk-off celebrations, as he wanted to protect his surgically-repaired ankle — he greeted Francona, who had jokingly put on a helmet.
That has been a gag since Naylor’s wild celebrations during his historic game in Chicago a few weeks ago, in which he belted two home runs to lead the Guardians to an improbable victory. After those homers, Naylor got to the dugout and spiked his helmet, and Francona since then has jokingly put on a helmet of his own before Naylor returns to the dugout after a home run.
On Wednesday night Naylor, now sans helmet, hit his own head a few times with his hands and then head-butted the helmet-protected Francona in celebration as the team walked off the field.
“I think he enjoys being there,” Francona said, speaking to Naylor being at the plate for clutch situations. “I thought the first couple of pitches he got a little bigger than he wanted. Then with two strikes he has the ability to go the other way. Fought off a couple of pitches that a lot of people probably miss. But then, he’s also strong enough … that was pretty special right there. You’re just hoping, they’ve got the hole open at short, get a ball through there and let’s keep playing. That was pretty special.”
As Francona left his postgame press conference with reporters, he jokingly quipped, with Naylor in the room, “I gotta go ice my neck.”
Naylor was clear after the game: he wanted to end it right there. As a reporter asked about trying to hit a walk-off home run being difficult, Naylor stopped him and said, “Not really.”
Naylor went into the at-bat sitting on a changeup. What he got were six consecutive fastballs.
“After I realized he threw three [fastballs] in a row, I felt like he was gonna keep doing it because he knew I was sitting on [the changeup],” Naylor said. “I just tried to hit a homer, to be honest. I was just trying to end the game. I didn’t want to hit a single. I wanted to end it. I just wanted to win.”
That swing gave the Guardians three wins this season when they were at one point trailing by three or more runs in the ninth inning or later. The rest of the league combined has five, and no other team has multiple such victories. Naylor has been in the center of a few of those games.
“It’s special. [Naylor] has been heroic this year, some late-inning homers,” said Cal Quantrill, who threw a career-high eight innings in Wednesday’s win. “Yeah, I think that can spark the team. Obviously we’re playing some good teams here in a row and battling. A couple tough losses. But that’s huge, that’s awesome. I was in the trainer’s room. I heard it before I saw it. That’s awesome. He deserves it. He’s been working very hard.”
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: Josh Naylor’s walk-off homer, bat flip, head-butt highlight win