We repeat this all the time because people think we are overly critical of the Cleveland Guardians, but we want them to be good. Nothing from a sports standpoint would give us more pleasure than to see a Cleveland player catch the last out of the World Series and trigger a celebration that is now 77 years in the making.
It still even brightens our day just a bit knowing the Guardians won last night. We have followed this franchise from the time we were six years old, and believe me, that’s a long time ago.
It seems we have written them off several times this season, but after their come from behind win against Tampa Bay last Wednesday, which brought them back to .500 at 66-66, we could still see a path to the playoffs.
On social media, we said the Guards had 30 games remaining and likely needed to go 20-10 in those contests to have a legitimate shot at the post-season. We did have one caveat, we felt with this offense, it would be very difficult to achieve.
And then, on Friday night, perhaps the most improbably win of the season. Against Seattle, a team vying for a playoff spot, just like Cleveland, the Guardians fell behind 4-0 in the first inning. They followed that by pretty much doing nothing for five innings on offense.
Then, Kyle Manzardo homered in the 6th. Nolan Jones, who was stuck on three homers before tying Wednesday’s game with one, hit another to make it 4-2. They scored again on a ground ball by Angel Martinez that sawed him off badly to make it 4-3.
And then Jones started a ninth inning winning rally with a double, some weird baserunning, and eventually Steven Kwan hit a sacrifice fly to win the game. We imagine a Mariners’ fan watching this and thinking “what the heck?”
The Guardians are still hovering around .500 even though their record, based on their runs scored and runs allowed says they should be at 61-74, which would put them well out of the race.
The league average OPS in 2025 is 721, Cleveland has two hitters, Jose Ramirez and Manzardo, over that mark. That’s it.
Ben Lively, a man who hasn’t pitched since the middle of May due to elbow surgery, still ranks 12th on the team in WAR. And Parker Messick, who has made just two starts on the season as he was just called up, is 11th.
Steven Vogt’s squad is doing it with smoke and mirrors. The team is determining the #2 and #5 spots in the batting order based on production in the past week. Jones, because he had five hits in three games last week, batted after Manzardo, a player in his first full season in the big leagues, on Sunday.
By the way, those five hits are the only hits by Jones since August 19th.
Rookie C.J. Kayfus is 0 for his last 15 and 4 for his last 31, and the organization released Carlos Santana (a move we agreed with) to get him more at bats.
Will Wilson, who was hitting under .200 since being sent down to AAA last month, was recalled when Daniel Schneemann went on paternity leave. He’s hitting .192 with a 511 OPS at the big league level.
And it’s not as though the pitching has been overwhelming either. The Guards are 8th in the AL in team ERA at 3.92 and the bullpen is nowhere near the dominant group they were in 2024.
Yet here they are. And although our brain says this team doesn’t have the horses, our heart tells us there is still a chance.
And if you grew up in the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s, that’s progress.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 