Naquin impresses with 6 RBIs against Royals

KANSAS CITY — Tyler Naquin needed a hat. When reporters approached him at his locker on Wednesday, and the Indians rookie outfielder saw that he would be on camera, he realized he had already packed his away for the team’s trip to Baltimore.

There were some hats in a large duffel bag a few steps from his stall inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium, where he had just launched two homers and six RBIs in an 11-4 rout of the Royals. So, Naquin grabbed one, toyed with the brim and tried it on.

“Is this one OK?” Naquin asked the group of media.

Actually, no. Naquin’s ears were tucked under the sides.

In that moment, Naquin looked very much like a rookie. In the batter’s box, however, the center fielder has played like a seasoned veteran. Dating to his return from Triple-A Columbus at the start of June, Naquin has been one of baseball’s best hitters, and he has shown some surprising power over the course of what is now almost a two-month sample size.

In Wednesday’s win, Naquin became the first Tribe rookie to have a multi-homer game that included at least six RBIs since 1986 (Cory Snyder), while no rookie had enjoyed a six-RBI game since 1990 (Turner Ward). This is hardly about one spectacular game, though.

One year after Francisco Lindor finished as the runner-up for the American League Rookie of the …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com