Cleveland Guardians seeing Amed Rosario return to form

DENVER — It wasn’t all that long ago that Cleveland Guardians shortstop Amed Rosario was wondering if the hard contact he was making at the plate would lead to any kind of production. However, over a two-week span, all of those questions have melted away as Rosario has once again become one of Cleveland’s biggest weapons.

Case in point on Wednesday night in a Cleveland Guardians road win over the Colorado Rockies where Rosario went 3-for-5 at the plate with a single, triple, and his first home run of the season. It’s part of a torrid month where Rosario is slashing .377/.377/.528 and making a difference at the plate and in the field.

Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona is sounding a warning to the rest of the American League about Amed Rosario’s hot hitting in June.

“Amed looks like he’s starting to be more like Amed,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona offered. “That’s why we stick with him. He’s got a track record and he gives you that effort every day down the line.

“It gets contagious and brings a ton of energy.”

When Rosario recently expressed his frustration about not seeing the results he wanted, he said he continued to do the things that worked for him last year in his first season in a Cleveland uniform.

“Nothing has changed with my approach,” Rosario said through a translator. “It’s a very difficult game. You put in the work because you can’t control the results. I just put it in God’s hands and I just keep playing.”

And playing is what Rosario is doing, including making a reflex defensive play on Wednesday night that had the crowd at Coors Field buzzing.

“Those are the little plays that change the outcome of the game,” Rosario said. “When you get rewarded like that, it helps you keep up the same tendencies to keep moving forward.”

Part of the trade with the New York Mets that sent Francisco Lindor to the Big Apple, Rosario has flourished in his time in Cleveland. On Tuesday, Rosario hit a third-inning double with an exit velocity of 115.8 mph, the highest exit velocity of his career and the hardest hit ball by a Cleveland player in the Statcast era. When he returned to the dugout, Rosario made sure everyone in the dugout saw the numbers.

“I showed everyone in the dugout on the iPad,” Rosario said as he smiled. “I couldn’t believe that was the actual velocity.”

Entering Thursday with a nine-game hitting streak and a hit in 13 of his last 14 games, Rosario is making believers out of plenty of people who wondered just how much of an impact player he could be for the Guardians.