Big fly, big relief: Zunino works his way out of slump

CLEVELAND -- There wasn’t a night that Mike Zunino was leaving the ballpark thinking about anything other than how he could get better for his team. Even when he’s in a good stretch, he says, he’s constantly fixated on improvement. But it seems safe to say it would’ve been harder the last few weeks based off of his body language.

Zunino was almost willing his 341-foot fly ball over the right-field wall at Progressive Field. He stared at it from the second it left his bat until it finally squeaked over the fence as he was halfway to second base. He needed this to go in his favor after having one of the roughest skids any Guardians player has encountered this year. And when he finally saw that it was a home run, he couldn’t help but pump his fists. He gave his club some much-needed insurance runs to help secure a 3-0 victory over the White Sox on Monday night.

“You got to just continue to work and a lot of the times, there’s as many good stretches as there is bad,” Zunino said.

Zunino can only hope that’s true. Entering Monday night, he ranked toward the bottom of nearly every offensive category:

Expected batting average: 1st percentile
Strikeout percentage: 1st percentile
Expected slugging percentage: 1st percentile
Whiff percentage: 1st percentile
Average exit velocity: 16th percentile
Hard hit percentage: 22nd percentile

When expected stats are just as low as actual stats, it means the player isn’t running into bad luck; he’s simply off at the plate. And that’s what Zunino has experienced so far. His defense hasn’t been able to bail him out of trouble, either, considering he came into the series opener against the White Sox tied for the most passed balls (four) of all backstops who’ve caught at least 30 innings this year. Although his framing is at least in the 66th percentile, his pop time to second base ranked in the sixth percentile.

That’s why Monday’s game was necessary for him to start righting the ship. He set the tone in the first by catching Luis Robert Jr. (who ranks in the 83rd percentile in sprint speed) stealing. He popped out and grounded out in his first two at-bats, but finally got decent contact on his two-run home run in the seventh inning -- his third long ball of the year.

“I was so happy for him,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “You could hear our whole dugout.”

Guardians first baseman Josh Naylor was leaning over the dugout railing with his arms above his head, screaming for Zunino to acknowledge the bench as he rounded third base. It wasn’t just a relief for the backstop, it was a weight off the entire team’s shoulders, as it knows it needs more production from the catching position than its received in order to be successful. Prior to Monday, Zunino’s only hit in May came on Sunday on a weakly-hit infield single to Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor. Before that? He was 0-for-27 with 21 strikeouts.

“I think it’s one of those things to this point the production has not been to where I wanted it,” Zunino said. “But I mean that’s part of this game. I think it’s one of those things where certain stretches get magnified but you got to come in, keep putting the work in, keep making adjustments you need to and the results usually come from that.”

The Guardians certainly didn’t explode offensively on Monday. They relied on a two-hit, six-inning gem from Hunter Gaddis, who’s filling in as a starter until Aaron Civale and Triston McKenzie are ready to rejoin the team since Peyton Battenfield landed on the IL. But this is how they needed to respond to Francona’s meeting in New York on Sunday night, reminding his club that they’re in this together and that they need to continue to play the game the right way. If they can do that, they believe they can consistently get back in the win column.

And a big part of that will be getting some stability from their starting catcher. Zunino sustained success just yet, but maybe that blast was enough to boost his confidence at the plate.

“You want to produce for your team as much as you can,” Zunino said. “You just got to keep your head up and keep working and hopefully that’s one of those that turns the corner here.”