It might be too soon to say it but it looks like the Cleveland Guardians are back

The Cleveland Guardians are starting to look like the team they’re supposed to be.

On Thursday night, the Cleveland Guardians did the best thing we’ve arguably seen all season; took the season series against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox are a solid team, but if we’re being fair, they’re a mid-tier team. Still, a team you need to beat, but not a team that should be making fans think the next step is the World Series. It’s a good series win, but there’s still work to do.

Work that, at least for right now, doesn’t seem impossible to accomplish. The Guardians have won three out of the last four series they’ve been in and tied for the only one they didn’t win. That’s four straight, non-losing, series for the Guardians.

Prior to this stretch, they haven’t had two consecutive non-losing series in a row since the start of the year. Now they’ve had four in a row. Over this stretch, they’ve gone 8-5 over their last 13 games, while scoring 63 runs and only giving up 44.

That’s nearly five runs per game (4.8) over that stretch, which is a full run over their season average (3.6). Not only but the team is surging right now when it comes to the power department. Well, surging for the Guardians.

Heading into the Boston Red Sox series, the Guardians had just 35 home runs, dead last in the league. That means they were averaging just over half (.57) of a home run per game, but now they’ve seen that figure tick upwards over the last four series (.69). It’s not a huge jump, but it’s better.

The even better part? They’re just 1.5 games now out of first place for the AL Central title. Granted, there isn’t a team in the Central that has a winning record, yet, but the Guardians are striking when the iron’s hot.

Should the Cleveland Guardians faithful believe the team has turned the corner?

The Guardians have played four very good series so far, and have a good opportunity against the Houston Astros coming up. If they can topple them and take two out of three, then that should give fans all they need to know that this isn’t just a hot streak this team is on, it’s who they really are. Now, the inverse isn’t true, at least not yet. If they lose the series, there’s still plenty of baseballs left, but it’ll seriously put a cramp in the team’s giddyup going forward.

That said, the Astros are coming to Cleveland at the most optimal time. They’re currently 5-6 in their last 11 and just lost two series to the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays.

The time to strike is now.