Amed Rosario, heating up, breaks through for struggling Cleveland Guardians lineup

A year ago, Amed Rosario caught fire for several weeks and finished the second half of the season in the top 30 among American League hitters in fWAR (1.7).

And after a dormant beginning to the 2022 season, Rosario has seemingly again awoken and helped to prop up a stagnant Guardians lineup.

Rosario hit just .211 with a .523 OPS in April and .259 with a .641 OPS in May. While several hitters in the Guardians lineup enjoyed strong stretches, Rosario was left out. Lately, he's been the hottest hitter in the lineup out of anyone not named Jose Ramirez. And it has come at at time in which the Guardians offense is struggling and searching for help.

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The Guardians recently had a 20-game stretch in which they went 16-4, which included a 7-2 road trip that allowed them to momentarily overtake first place in the American League Central. What followed that stretch was a five-game losing streak in which the Guardians scored a combined nine runs.

On Tuesday, the Guardians split a doubleheader with the division-leading Twins, winning the first game 3-2 to snap the losing streak. Without Rosario, the skid would have reached seven games.

In the eighth inning of the first game on Tuesday, the the Guardians had two runners in scoring position while trailing 2-1. The Twins brought the infield in, and Rosario responded by slapping a single back up the middle to give Cleveland a 3-2 lead, which they held onto for the win thanks to closer Emmanuel Clase in the ninth. When Rosario rounded first, he leaped in the air and looked toward the Guardians dugout.

"Yeah I think it's just part of the emotion of the moment," Rosario said via a team translator. "I know we've had a couple of rough games, but because of that, we didn't put our heads down, we just kept going."

Rosario, prior to that game-winning single, hit .333 with a .936 OPS, including seven extra-base hits in 13 games (two home runs, three doubles, two triples, six RBIs and three stolen bases) over the previous two weeks. He's hit .343 over the last month. And quickly, Rosario has again become a weapon near the top of the Guardians lineup, just when the order as a whole was missing some of its punching power.

Rosario sees it as a byproduct of a fierce enjoyment of baseball. It's also been the case that Rosario has taken off once he settled into a regular role as the team's shortstop. Steven Kwan and Oscar Gonzalez emerging as everyday outfielders has allowed Rosario to stick to the infield.

"I think that intensity comes from my enjoyment of the game," Rosario said. "I like to enjoy the game, and that's how I enjoy the game. That's how I was taught to play the game, with that intensity. Doing those things, it's not about thinking about scoring a run or anything like that, it's just about enjoyment and enjoying the game."

Manager Terry Francona hopes that history repeats itself, in that this version of Rosario is here to stay. The Guardians remain three games behind the Twins in the divisional race, making Rosario a key factor at the top of the lineup.

“When he's staying up the middle and hitting the ball to right field, he gets really dangerous because he’s quick and that’s why early on, when it wasn’t going really good, that’s why we stayed with him because you know that’s in there," Francona said. "He did the same thing last year. Once he got hot, he stayed hot. He’s such a good baserunner and that’s a big part of what we do."

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: Cleveland Guardians lineup getting lift from Amed Rosario