'Ultimate competitor': Guardians' Josh Naylor ready to return to his clutch-hitting ways

CLEVELAND — From the door of the Guardians’ clubhouse, a trail of dirt led to Josh Naylor’s locker.

It wasn’t as heavy as footprints in the sand, more like small clumps of crumbs in the carpet.

But it was still bothering the Guardians' right fielder/first baseman.

“I'm setting up a camera in my locker. Somebody's screwing with me. I'm not liking it. But I'll clean up the mess. It's OK,” Naylor said.

Naylor had just been activated from the COVID-IL, so it was likely a welcome gesture from one or more of his mischievous teammates. But it was enough to prompt Naylor to ask home clubhouse and equipment manager Tony Amato for the sweeper.

“If it's around my locker, I have to do it. This is my home. I've got to clean my home,” Naylor said.

Naylor tested positive for COVID-19 on May 13, and the timing couldn’t have been more unfortunate. He made history on May 9 in Chicago against the White Sox, driving in eight runs after the eighth inning. After Friday night's 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field, he led the team with a .347 average with five home runs and 22 RBIs.

Naylor wasn’t in the lineup against the Tigers and was not called on to pinch-hit, but that didn’t seem to bother him.

“I trust the guys here. I trust the front office. I trust the trainers and the coaching staff. Whatever they think is best is best. I just go with it,” Naylor said before the game. “It's no rush. I'm all right.”

He may not sit for long. In eight May games, Naylor is batting .407 with three home runs and 15 RBIs. But Naylor won’t dwell on being forced to miss five games while in COVID-19 protocols.

“Those games are in the past,” he said. “Whether they were good or bad games, they're in the past. I'm focusing on the present and just trying to take every day, work my hardest, get my routine done and focus on the task at hand.”

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Hitting coach Chris Valaika said the Guardians training staff has helped Naylor get his legs back under him and Naylor said he was stretching at home.

“He's the ultimate competitor, I think you know,” Valaika said. “If he had a month off, he'd be ready to go.”

Naylor said he “wasn’t feeling the best, in a way” with a “mini, mini cough” before his test. Manager Terry Francona and six members of his coaching staff also tested positive in the outbreak, but Naylor was the only player. The Guardians have had five players miss time this season with the virus.

“I always play the safe card. I don't ever want to come to the field, whether it's a little cough or a cold or the flu or whatever,” Naylor said. “But I want to make sure I protect the guys here and I don't want to come in here and potentially get someone else sick and then they take it home to their kids, their wife, whoever. And then they get sick and it trickles down. It came back the way it came back and I just had to hang with it.”

Naylor tried to treat the break like an off day, saying he “crushed a bunch of TV shows” while he was down.

Asked for binge recommendations, Naylor said, “There's a show called Animal Kingdom that's really good. Prison Break, Dexter's great. Breaking Bad's solid. I've watched those like five times each.

“I go through Netflix, HBO looking for different movies. Whatever I'm interested in at the moment.”

When he landed on the list, Naylor was batting .588 with runners in scoring position with three home runs and 17 RBIs. Entering Friday, he led the AL in batting with two strikes (.348) and in hitting after the sixth inning (.478) and was second with men on base (.429).

After watching Naylor’s spectacular return from a fractured and dislocated right ankle suffered on June 27, Valaika has no doubt Naylor will continue to come through in the clutch.

“He's locked in all game, I think it's probably just showed up late … Those at-bats in Chicago taking over the back end of the game like that,” Valaika said. “He competes, he fights, he wants to be that guy up at the plate. It's kind of worked out that he's got those opportunities and produced for us.”

Cleveland Guardians starter Aaron Civale leaves with left glute cramp, says 'it's already improving'

Guardians starter Aaron Civale was forced to leave Friday's game with one out in the seventh inning after a fielding play.

Civale landed hard as he dove for a ball off the bat of Jeimer Candelario. Civale tried to push the ball toward first baseman Owen Miller, but Candelario reached safely and Civale was charged with an error.

"I think the impact of the ground and then the next pitch just felt it wasn't working properly," Civale said. "We'll just give it a couple days and work on it and see how it goes. It's already improving so far."

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Guardians Josh Naylor ready to resume his torrid start