Kyle Manzardo reached base three times Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, and the last of those trips changed the game. His two-run home run in the fourth inning off Cam Schlittler gave the Cleveland Guardians a 3-2 lead on the way to a performance that stood out even in a season that has started to turn for him.
Manzardo finished 2-for-4 with a run scored, two RBIs, a walk and his sixth homer of the season. The home run was his first since May 22 against Philadelphia, a gap that mattered because it came after a stretch in which he had been under scrutiny for chase tendencies and uneven production, even as his recent numbers were moving in the right direction.
That recent stretch is the part Cleveland has reason to notice. Over his last 24 games, Manzardo is 21-for-73 with 17 runs, two doubles, one triple, five home runs, 12 RBIs and nine walks, good for a.288 batting average and a.383 on-base percentage. Those are not empty numbers, and they came against a Yankees staff that does not often hand out free passes, with Schlittler entering the night at 7-3 with a 1.89 ERA.
The friction is still there, though. Manzardo has not escaped the criticism that followed earlier stretches of inconsistency, and his place in the lineup will keep coming back to the same question: whether the disciplined, productive version of him can show up long enough to make the doubts feel outdated. For now, the answer from one night in the Bronx is simple. He was the hitter Cleveland needed, and he was the one who put them in front.
