Josh Naylor of the Cleveland Guardians tried way too hard on his home run celebration, but we have to give him credit, his point landed.
Josh Naylor took a 3-2 Gerrit Cole pitch yard to bring the Guardians within one run of the New York Yankees in Game 4.
Naylor, who doesn’t appear to have any bad blood with Cole necessarily, rocked his arms back and forth as if he were holding a baby after taking the Yankees ace deep. Cole, of course, has the reputation of a pitcher who perhaps whines or complains at times — though much of that is unfounded.
Surely Naylor will have to answer for his actions here, either postgame with the media or in a confrontation with the Yankees in his next at-bat, not that we’re advocating for either.
What did Josh Naylor’s celebration mean?
Naylor’s celebration looked to be a shot at Cole himself. The two don’t have a checkered past, at least as far as the Twitter detectives can see. Naylor was 1-for-9 against Cole this season, so maybe he was just happy to hit the home run and went a little over the top?
The bomb was a solo shot, but could be consequential in this series if its extended to a fifth game in New York.
For all we know, Naylor’s point wasn’t intended for Cole. But as I previously mentioned, we have no way of knowing!
Perhaps these two DO have a history, or Naylor was motioning to the Yankees dugout. Naylor’s brother is on the Guardians, as well, so perhaps Naylor was making a point in that direction.
All we DO know is that Cole surely couldn’t have taken kindly to such a vehement display as Naylor ran around the bases. Safe to say he’ll take that into careful consideration moving forward.
We’ll have more on this story momentarily.