Guardians homer three times in rain delayed win over Royals

It was a wait of about an hour and 20 minutes and things looked a bit murky in the 1st, but after the game got past it's infant stages it was all Guardians. Cleveland's offense was powered by home runs from Andres Gimenez in the 2nd and back-to-back home runs in the 6th from Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor.

Gimenez nearly hit a home run earlier in his at bat with the ball trailing off into foul territory, but a slight adjustment made sure the next time he made hard contact that it would stay fair.

Ramirez was patient in his at-bat and that patience paid off. Finding himself in a full count, Ramirez connected on a 86 MPH slider that caught way too much of the zone to break the 1-1 tie.

Naylor would homer on the very next pitch to increase Cleveland's lead to 2. Coming back and hitting a home run in his first game back is very encouraging from the Guardians first baseman after missing the past few games due to injury.

Cleveland would score two more times in the inning to make it a 5-1 game, putting it out of reach for a pesky, but light hitting Royals squad. A RBI single off the bat of Myles Straw in the 8th would tack on the final run of the game for the 6-1 final score.

This was big win for the Guardians for a few reasons. First off, it's a win, can never complain about that. Secondly, it brings Cleveland to one game under .500. Finally, it cuts into the Minnesota Twins' lead in the American League Central division, going from 2 games to 1.5 games as they were idle Thursday.

This is the beginning of what could be a very strong finish to the first half of the season for the Guardians. Cleveland has three more games remaining against Kansas City while Minnesota takes on the Baltimore Orioles. All it takes is a few things to go their way and the Guardians could be the team atop the divison at the All-Star break.