The series win against the Houston Astros has made us hopeful for the Cleveland Guardians

The Cleveland Guardians may have found their swing.

The Cleveland Guardians are far from being done and out of the playoff race for the 2023 season. We spoke before about how the club had seemingly found its stride once late May, and early-June hit, going 8-5 over their last 13 games, prior to the Houston Astros series. They had a good series win over the Baltimore Orioles while splitting a four-game series with the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins and getting wins over the 27-win St. Louis Cardinals and 33-win Boston Red Sox.

They were trending upwards but needed a huge series against the 37-win Astros. One of the tougher teams on the calendar in the first half of the season. While they pooched a good chance to take Game 2, it’s hard to argue that the series didn’t go exactly as it needed to. The Guardians mounted a comeback in Game 1, coming back in the late innings, before tying it up and going extras. That’s where the two squads went back and forth for a few innings, scoring runs on one another, before the walk-off double in the 14th by Will Brennan.

Then in Game 3, they just held the Astros to a scoreless outing, while tacking on five runs on the Astros. The win marked their fifth series in a row where they’ve either won or tied the series and are now 10-6 over their last 16.

The Cleveland Guardians are thriving right now

Over the last 16 games, the Guardians are now averaging 5.124 runs per game. Not only that, but they’ve got a pretty favorable schedule coming up. The Guardians have a series against the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royales (twice), the Chicago Cubs, and the Atlanta Braves over the next month.

The team’s only big challenges will be the Arizona Diamond Backs (40 wins currently) and the Atlanta Braves (also at 40 wins currently). The Padres are struggling, proof that money doesn’t buy you success, The Brewers are slumping and just over .500. The Cubs have just 27 wins on the season, and the A’s (17 wins) and the Royals (18 wins) have fewer wins combined than the Braves, and have just one more win combined than the Brewers.

The Guardians could easily be, not just over .500 by the All-Star break on July 9th, but solidly in first place.

• Published on 06/13/2023 at 00:02 AM
• Last updated at 06/14/2023 at 00:29 AM