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Oscar Gonzalez off to red hot start in July for Columbus

The 25-year old outfielder continues to be a force at the plate for the Clippers

By James Mastrucci |
Miami Marlins v Cleveland Guardians
Miami Marlins v Cleveland Guardians / Lauren Leigh Bacho/GettyImages

Oscar Gonzalez is clearly making an impact in Triple-A for the Columbus Clippers. The young outfielder has picked up right where he left off in the month of June and has improved upon it as July has just gotten underway.

Gonzalez slashed .327/.364/.592 with 10 doubles, four home runs, two triples, while driving in 23 runs over the course of 98 at-bats for the Clippers. This even included a 5-5 effort which saw Gonzalez hit for the cycle in a 7-6 win over Indianapolis. Gonzalez' first four games in July has seen his red hot bat continue to make an impact.

Granted it is just four games, but Gonzalez is 7-16 with a home run and six runs driven in while walking twice. This amounts to a .438/.526/.625 slash line for the 25-year old outfielder.

Including the months of June and the four games of July Gonzalez is 39-114, which is an impressive .342 batting average. Strikeouts still appear to be an issue for Gonzalez with 27 swings and misses over that span compared to 15 strikeouts in 73 at-bats with the Guardians earlier this season. Even when he is absolutely scorching at the plate he is still striking out at a higher rate than while in Cleveland, 20.5% with the Guardians and 23.7 over the last month plus with the Clippers.

Even with the strikeouts being a clear issue, it is still only a matter of time before he returns to Cleveland. The Guardians are currently getting a hands-on look at a team that can absolutely mash in Atlanta and it is quite clear that they do not have the required firepower to keep up as often as they would like. Gonzalez is far from being anywhere near the player that the Braves feature in most of their lineup spots, but he helps close the gap between Cleveland's offerings and Atlanta's.

Barring some sort of major trade, it truly seems that Gonzalez is someone that Cleveland is going to utilize in an effort to add more thump to the lineup. Hopefully Gonzalez can recapture some of that magic that captivated the fanbase down the stretch last year as that would go a long way for this Guardians lineup.