Bo Naylor hits first career home run in rout of Royals

Rookie backstop Bo Naylor hit what should be the first of many home runs in his career Wednesday night in Cleveland's 14-1 win over Kansas City. The Guardians were already in possession of a comfortable 6-0 lead when it was the younger Naylor's time to come through. With Myles Straw on first after reaching on an infield single to start the inning, Naylor saw two pitches from Royals pitcherJames McArthur before connecting with a 92 mph sinker that did not sink and deposited it into the left center field stands.

It was only a matter of time before Bo Naylor hit his first major league home run. The 23-year old catcher hit 13 down in Columbus earlier this year and had 21 the year before across Double-A and Triple-A.

Naylor's home run was the third of three Guardians home runs in their lopsided win. Also homering were Jose Ramirez and Josh Bell. Ramirez' was of the grand slam variety to get Cleveland on the board in the 3rd and Bell hit a two-run shot in the 5th to extend their lead.

The Guardians ended up with 14 total hits in the contest, with eight of them going for extra-bases. Bell and Ramirez drove in a combined three runs via doubles to go with their multi-run homers. Amed Rosario had a RBI triple while one of Josh Naylor's two doubles drove in a run during the seven run 6th inning.

Cleveland's 13-run victory goes beyond just winning this game, it resulted in a change atop the standings in the American League Central. Thanks to the Atlanta Braves sweeping the Minnesota Twins, at 30-40 Cleveland is now in sole possession of the AL Central lead. A win on Thursday would bring the Guardians back to .500 on the year and increase their lead over the idle Twins to 1.5 games.