Oscar Gonzalez continues to rack up hits as Guardians tell him to swing away

Swing away. It's a pretty simple set of instructions in baseball terms. And while it isn't quite that simple, it's the basis of what the Guardians told rookie Oscar Gonzalez when he was called up to the majors.

And all he's done since is hit — over, and over, and over.

A 13-game stretch does not a career make, but Gonzalez hasn't slowed his torrid pace since his debut. Gonzalez has collected at least one hit in 12 of his first 13 major league games, making him only the second player in club history to accomplish that feat, along with Roger Maris in 1957.

In Thursday's 8-4 win over the Oakland A's, he had four hits and raised his batting average to .404 and his OPS to .934. It also gave him 21 total hits in those 13 games, which is the most by a Cleveland hitter to start a career since 1991. Entering Friday, Gonzalez had a 174 wRC+ (an offensive value statistic in which 100 is league average). That would be second on the team behind only Jose Ramirez's 183.

Along the way, the Guardians have wanted him to be true to the hitter he's always been — an aggressive free-swinger. Gonzalez has never been one to draw many walks, and the Guardians didn't want him to try to focus on that just because he was now a major leaguer.

"We kind of told him, 'Hey, don't worry about walking,'" manager Terry Francona said. "Just try to see how many good swings you can get at good pitches. Because he has bat speed, he can hit the ball the other way, he's not like a lot of young right-handed power hitters. He doesn't pull off very much. He stays through the ball and hits the ball to right field. He's just ultra-aggressive. If he stays in the zone, he's going to do some damage."

Drawing a walk certainly isn't a bad thing, but the team has allowed him to lean into his

aggressiveness, and it has been working. Gonzalez, 24, has become yet another rookie to make a strong debut this season, joining Steven Kwan, Richie Palacios, Konnor Pilkington and others.

"This is what I've been thinking about since I was a kid. I've prepared for this," Gonzalez said through a team interpreter. "I feel like everybody has given me a really warm welcome here and they made it really clear what we come here for, which is to win games. It's been really nice for me to adjust and see how I would play here."

Gonzalez was called up in part due to Franmil Reyes' hamstring injury, which has him on the injured list. The team hopes to have more of a plan with Reyes on Friday. That opened a door to major league at-bats for Gonzalez, and he quickly grabbed hold of an everyday role as long as he's hitting anything close to what he's done in the first 13 games.

It is, of course, likely that Gonzalez's pace will slow at some point soon. But he's carved out his place on the Guardians roster.

"Oh, it’s amazing. I played with him pretty much every level coming up," said Ernie Clement, speaking to Gonzalez's major league debut. "So, to see his growth and maturity, it’s amazing because when I first met him, he was just a young kid from the [Dominican Republic]. I mean, he’s still an amazing hitter. He always was. But the other facets of his game are coming along and it’s really exciting because he’s gonna be one hell of a player."

"It's good when everybody starts contributing," Francona said. "It starts to permeate more confidence throughout the roster, not just hanging it all on Josey and guys like that."

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: Oscar Gonzalez makes franchise rookie history as team tells him to swing away