Latest news with #JhonkensyNoel
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Guardians use 4-run 10th inning to beat Tigers 7-5 after falling behind early
Cleveland Guardians' Jhonkensy Noel celebrates in the dugout after scoring a run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor, right, celebrates with third base coach Rouglas Odor, left, as he circles the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter (30) celebrates at second base after hitting a lead off double against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning during a baseball game, Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor (23) celebrates as he circles the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor (23) celebrates as he circles the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Jhonkensy Noel celebrates in the dugout after scoring a run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor, right, celebrates with third base coach Rouglas Odor, left, as he circles the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter (30) celebrates at second base after hitting a lead off double against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning during a baseball game, Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor (23) celebrates as he circles the bases after hitting a home run against the Detroit Tigers in the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Lon Horwedel) DETROIT (AP) — Kyle Manzardo and Angel Martínez hit RBI doubles in Cleveland's four-run 10th inning, helping the Guardians beat the Detroit Tigers for the third straight game, 7-5 on Saturday night. Bo Naylor homered and drove in two runs, including a sacrifice fly that was part of the Guardians' big inning. Nolan Jones added an RBI single in the 10th. Advertisement With the game tied at 3, Manzardo led off the 10th with an RBI double off Brenan Hanifee (2-2). After Carlos Santana walked, Martínez's RBI double made it 5-3. Gleyber Torres made it 7-5 with a two-run double in the bottom of the inning, but Emmanuel Clase got two outs to seal the victory for Cleveland. Tim Herrin (4-1) got the win after pitching a scoreless ninth. Detroit, which hadn't lost three straight since the opening series of the season, led 3-0 after one inning, but Torres got their only two hits in the rest of the game. After scoring one run in the first 18 innings of the series, the Tigers scored three in Saturday's first inning. Kerry Carpenter doubled, Torres walked and Colt Keith hit an RBI double. Advertisement Ortiz almost escaped the inning, retiring Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson, but Zach McKinstry walked and Matt Vierling hit a two-run single. Cleveland scored twice in the third on Naylor's homer and an RBI single by Jose Ramírez, and Ortiz escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the inning. Cleveland tied it in the eighth when Ramírez singled, took third on Manzardo's base hit and beat Torkelson's throw to the plate on Martínez's grounder to first. The Guardians called up RHP Nic Enright and placed RHP Hunter Gaddis on the bereavement list. Enright was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2022, but has continued to pitch while undergoing treatment. Advertisement Key moment After Ramírez tied it in the eighth, Cleveland loaded the bases with one out. Tommy Kahnle got Naylor to pop out and Will Vest came in to retire pinch-hitter Jones on a grounder to second. Key stat Ramírez's third-inning single extended his hitting streak to 17 games. Up next The Tigers and Guardians finish their four-game series on Sunday morning, with the first pitch scheduled for 11:35 a,m. EDT. Detroit ace LHP Tarik Skubal (4-2, 2.87) will face LHP Logan Allen (2-2, 3.86). — AP MLB:
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Nine numbers that reflect the state of the up-and-down Cleveland Guardians
The Cleveland Guardians need a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds next month or they'll relinquish the Ohio Cup to their Buckeye State foes for the first time since 2014. These are desperate times in northeast Ohio. Let's examine some numbers that shed some light on the Guardians' state of play as they embark on a week of in-division play against the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, the two teams ahead of them in the AL Central. Advertisement That OPS, by the way, was a meager .526 entering Sunday. Only the Royals' right fielders have been less productive. Jhonkensy Noel is 12-for-80 with 27 strikeouts. Nolan Jones is 19-for-105 with 36 strikeouts. For an offense that, as a whole, ranks 21st in OPS, this has been the greatest problem area. Lane Thomas could help to alleviate what's been a black hole when he returns in the coming days. Perhaps the most shocking part about this right field timeshare? Jones and Noel, whom both possess the muscle to pepper the upper deck seats, have combined for only four homers. Entering Sunday, only 12 qualified big leaguers had logged a lower slugging percentage. Santana is drawing walks at a healthy clip, per usual, but his extra-base hits have vanished. He has three doubles and four home runs, or about one extra-base hit per week. Santana's at-bats per extra-base hit, by year: 2025: 21.3 2024: 10.6 2023: 9.6 2022: 11.6 2021: 16.6 2020: 13.7 2019: 8.8 David Fry will return soon from elbow surgery, and if Santana's power hasn't resurfaced by then, the Guardians can't be afraid to slice into his playing time. That'd be his highest wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) since 2020, when he finished runner-up in AL MVP voting. This signifies that he's been 44 percent more proficient than the league-average hitter this year, in case anyone was concerned that the 32-year-old was slowing down at the plate. He has boosted his walk rate, trimmed his strikeout rate and is hitting for his highest average since 2017. He's on pace for 32 homers and 42 stolen bases. Stephen Vogt's lineup couldn't survive without him. José Ramírez crushes a 401-foot homer 💥 #RivalryWeekend — MLB (@MLB) May 16, 2025 He has 10 thus far, and where would the Guardians be without that new power source? Here's the list of Cleveland hitters with 35 or more in a season in the 21st century: Tanner Bibee is responsible for three of the seven. Luis Ortiz has two, and Logan Allen and Gavin Williams have one apiece. That's it. That's about one start of that caliber per week. The rest of the league has accounted for 409 of these starts, or about 14 per club. It helps to explain how Cleveland has already used 21 pitchers (after using an average of 27.5 the last four years), and that doesn't include Vince Velasquez, who spent a few days on the roster but didn't enter a game. Advertisement Among Cleveland's starters, only Ben Lively has a lower rate. Bibee hasn't looked like himself for much of this season. Last year, he struck out more than five hitters in 18 of 31 outings. This year, it's 0-for-9. His chase rate and whiff rate have tumbled, too. A shift to focusing on efficiency for the sake of piling up innings, rather than chasing strikeouts, is perfectly sensible, and Bibee has been pitching deeper into games over the last few weeks. The results, however, have been mixed. Bibee's 4.06 ERA is right around league average. That's across 17 innings (even though, somehow, he has recorded only six strikeouts). Allard has been a savior for Cleveland's pen, just as everyone would have expected. The quartet of Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin remains the team's core strength. But the other half of the bullpen has been a revolving door. The Guardians need another reliable arm or two, even if Allard's output proves sustainable. The answers might be waiting in Triple-A Columbus in the form of Andrew Walters, Franco Aleman and Nic Enright. Allard was a first-round pick a decade ago and a consensus top 100 prospect for three years. He broke into the big leagues before he turned 21. But it's been a bumpy road to this point. Now 27, Allard signed a minor-league deal with the Guardians — his fourth team in eight years — and worked his way into their bullpen. He has pitched in long relief to rescue the staff and has even dabbled in high-leverage opportunities. He's putting to use the lessons learned from 10 years of trials. 'I wouldn't have always been able to sit up here and tell you exactly who I am as a pitcher,' Allard said. 'I stopped trying to chase velocity, velocity, velocity and tried to focus more on making pitches, mixing pitches and putting them in the right spots. … I've taken some lumps at the big-league level and there were times when I thought throwing harder might solve those problems. Just getting older, being a little more mature, slowing the game down a little bit out there and seeing things before they happen (has helped).' Only Ramîrez can top Schneemann's .839 OPS, a development everyone surely predicted. He ranks third on the team in homers, with six (one more than he hit all of last year in twice the trips to the plate). His emergence has been critical for a middle infield in flux. Brayan Rocchio was so ineffective he was optioned to Triple A. Gabriel Arias has been fine. Juan Brito is sidelined until the middle of the summer. Angel Martínez has been needed to patrol center field. Advertisement This is, admittedly, an oddly specific statistic. Why is it interesting? Well, one of those 14 is Bibee. OK, fine. Another one? Ben Lively. No one would have anticipated that when Lively, a career journeyman with a 5.05 ERA, landed in Cleveland on a league-minimum deal a year and a half ago. He's on the injured list, and is awaiting a second opinion on his right forearm strain. But he was pitching as well as he ever has, allowing only one run in 14 innings in May and holding the opposition to zero or one run in five of his last seven starts. 'That's the worst part about it,' he said. 'That's why I just wanted to keep running back onto the field, even though it was (painful).' He first felt the discomfort on a strikeout of Josh Bell in the fourth inning of his start against the Washington Nationals on May 6. That day, he lasted only 63 pitches. He exited after three innings against the Milwaukee Brewers last Monday and then wound up on the injured list. He said he endured 'the craziest mental game of all time' as he debated whether to speak up about his injury as he stood atop the mound and knew something wasn't right. Ultimately, his forearm felt tighter, and despite insisting he was fine, 'They were basically like, 'OK, stop, Mr. Tough Guy,'' he said. (Top photo of José Ramírez: Ben Jackson / Getty Images)
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Moon shots and mob movies: Jhonkensy Noel's bid to be Guardians' next big home run hitter
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On an overcast March morning, Jhonkensy Noel stood beside the batting cage near home plate on a back field. He stuck a white donut atop his bat, a powerful, merlot-colored stick with lilac-shaded tape wrapped around the handle. As he waited for Steven Kwan to wrap up his session, Noel bobbed his head, bounced his knees and mouthed some lyrics as 'Dance Monkey' by Tones and I blared from a speaker the size of a middle schooler. Advertisement Noel then stepped up to the plate and obliterated some baseballs. He sprayed line drives to the outfield and, with his final swing, punished a baseball that sailed just to the right of the forest-green batter's eye in center. He swapped places with Kwan again and returned to bobbing his head to the rapid bass of Sean Paul's 'Temperature.' Every day of Noel's life is the best day of his life. 'I've seen him mad, like, once,' Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said, 'and it's scary, so I'm glad he's a jolly person. He's always in a good mood. He loves baseball. He loves working. He loves playing.' His smile illuminates the clubhouse. This spring, he'd take his hacks and then head home to watch a crime-filled thriller movie. One day, 'A Bronx Tale.' The next, 'Casino.' 'Red Dawn' awaits. Noel controls his own destiny this year. The slugger, conservatively listed at 6 foot 3, 250 pounds, isn't sneaking up on anyone, not after the way he delivered for Cleveland's lineup last summer and in the most pivotal moment of the season in October. He's on everyone's radar: Guardians evaluators, opposing pitchers, the fans sitting in the left-field bleachers at Progressive Field, waiting for one of his moon shots to carom off the scoreboard and into their souvenir helmet full of chocolate soft-serve. He's a home run threat in any venue. During the Guardians' season-opening series in Kansas City, Noel dismissed the notion that Kauffman Stadium's spacious outfield makes life tough on those built like him. 'They say it's too big,' Noel said, 'but when you have power, nothing is too big for you.' If he hits, Noel, initially slated to share right field with Nolan Jones, should have no trouble earning more at-bats. Noel ranked among league leaders in bat speed and barrel rate last season. 'We know Jhonkensy could probably hit 50 homers,' teammate David Fry said. Advertisement The question, of course, is whether he'll make enough contact to stay in the lineup, whether he can resist pitches off the plate thrown only to tempt him. He ranked near the bottom of the league leaderboard in chase and whiff rates. 'They say if you love something, you have to work for it,' Noel said. So, that's what he's done, though it'll take some time to learn if he can be a more patient hitter. No one's expecting the 23-year-old to revamp his profile. He's a giant made to mash mistakes, though he noted, 'You're not always going to hit the ball 110 (mph) all the time,' so he needs a flexible approach. And that's why, he said, 'people don't know, but I love bloopers.' If he can demonstrate more selectiveness, it'll make him even more imposing. 'He's on a mission,' Vogt said. 'I'm excited to see the year he's going to put together.' Brayan Rocchio has a photo on his phone of him and Noel in the dugout at the club's complex in the Dominican Republic. Both were 16 years old, a couple of skinny kids who had no idea the challenges that a journey to the big leagues would present. The two bonded over the photo at a recent team gathering. They laughed about the youth in those kids' faces and marveled that they reached the majors together and both enjoyed postseason success as rookies. 'We both have a lot of confidence now,' Rocchio said, 'because the team knows what we can do in those moments.' Noel doesn't tire from watching the replay of his ninth-inning blast against the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS. He loves hearing about it from fans, especially the ones who recount how they left the game early only to hustle back to the turnstiles when he sent Luke Weaver's changeup spinning toward Lake Erie. JHONKENSY NOEL TIES IT WITH A PINCH HIT HOME RUN! BIG CHRISTMAS!!!! — Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 18, 2024 Rocchio commended Noel for staying prepared on the bench, for making himself ready to meet the moment at the most critical juncture of the game — and the season. Noel contends he doesn't typically crave the spotlight but has been humbled by how often he hears from strangers — at the airport, the supermarket, even walking around downtown Cleveland, where, thanks to his size and smile, he sticks out like a January heat wave. Advertisement He wears it as a badge of honor because when he was growing up in San Pedro de Macoris in the D.R., his childhood was divided into three components: 'School, baseball and home,' he said. When he was 12, his parents pulled him out of school and entered him into a baseball academy. 'Where I come from,' Noel added, speaking about his neighborhood, 'I'm the first person to make it to the big leagues.' Before that life-changing homer, Noel was swinging away in the batting cage beneath Progressive Field, adjacent to the Guardians' weight room. His swing felt fluid. It always feels powerful, he said — after all, he looks like Hercules waving a tree trunk. But he can feel in his hips and legs when he's on time and ready to pounce on a pitch. This particular session checked every box. 'I knew I was going to do something,' he said. When Lane Thomas battled back from an 0-2 count to extend the game with a double off the wall and offer Noel a chance at October immortality, Noel knew he could complete the only mission he was dispatched to accomplish. In the stands, Noel's father, Rafael, sat with the slugger's agent. It was Rafael's first visit to the United States, and he left with a memory he'll cherish forever. Noel doesn't like talking baseball with his dad, who tends to question swing decisions as if a split-second is ample time for a hitter to determine whether he can pummel a 92-mph slider on the outside corner. Over the winter, Noel and his dad watched games at a facility in the Dominican. A hitter waved at a fastball down the middle. Rafael said, 'Come on, man.' Noel replied, 'You see? It's not easy. Go hit yourself.' 'Baseball can drive you crazy,' Noel said, laughing. He would know. He carried a .935 OPS into September in his rookie season, only to go 6-for-51 in September and then 1-for-15 before he calmly strolled to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of Game 3. Advertisement Noel is hoping his October heroics put an end to all father-son second-guessing. Even without his father in his ear, he knows his swing decisions will determine whether he can carve out a regular role with the Guardians. 'When he hits a big home run, he's not smiling,' Vogt said. 'It's, 'I did my job. Here we go. Let's keep going.' Off the field, he's very smiley and engaged, but he knows how to lock it in and that's what makes him great.' That's why, for Noel, it's all about baseball and becoming a more threatening hitter — at least, when he's not watching mob movies. 'That's how I'm learning to hone in,' he said. 'Do my best, put my clothes on and go home and watch a movie. Today, I'm gonna go watch 'The Godfather.''
