Jo Adell’s massive game against Giants reinforces Chris Antonetti’s aggressive trade deadline approach 

Maybe former Guardians prospect Jacob Cozart becomes a stud for the Los Angeles Angels and makes Cleveland’s decision to trade him in exchange for Jo Adell look foolish. 

But Adell took an even bigger step toward making that outcome harder for Cozart on Tuesday when he recorded six RBI in Cleveland’s 8-1 win over the Giants while mashing his first-inning home run that went a Statcast-projected 455 feet. 

While we knew Adell had power, that home run showed that he can hang in big boy territory. 

Jo Adell had his first signature game with the Guardians on Tuesday

Adell set the tone in Cleveland’s rare blowout win on Tuesday by mashing his towering home run in the first inning on a Carson Whisenhunt changeup that just hung over the middle of the plate. 

Not only was the homer Adell’s longest of the season (and the second-longest of his career), it was also the longest home run hit by a Guardian this year along with being the biggest blast hit at Progressive Field this season. 

He added onto that in the third inning with a 109.5 mile per hour single in the third inning that plated two runs before getting another one on an RBI single past the shortstop in the fourth inning. 

Even if Whisenhunt isn’t the best pitcher in baseball (he now has a 7.03 ERA), that performance is the reason the Guardians traded for Adell. They put Adell at the top of the lineup against a lefty, and he responded by providing them with three hits they’ve been dying for over the past couple weeks. 

Another reason why Adell was able to have such a productive day was José Ramírez, who recorded three hits and came around to score twice. That marked his second straight game with multiple hits, and the first time he had three hits since returning from the hamate injury in the middle of June. 

Steven Kwan also scored all three times he reached base out of the leadoff spot. 

Again, this is probably exactly how the Guardians’ front office imagined things were going to go when they traded for Adell at the deadline. 

Adell wasn’t the only trade deadline acquisition who starred on Tuesday, as Foster Griffin had another strong start after struggling in his Guardians debut. Griffin allowed one run on just five hits and two walks while striking out six.

Griffin threw all seven of his pitches, and was able to get four whiffs on his changeup and two with his cutter and fastball. 

Tuesday’s win was exactly what the Guardians needed after missing out on some golden opportunities to gain ground in their division with their series against the White Sox and Tigers. 

The game against the Braves kicked off a run of 12 straight games against teams under .500 ,and Adell helped them pass their first test in that span. 

Now it’s on them to keep it up.

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