It wasn’t even a month ago. It was August 25th, and the Cleveland Guardians were shutout by Tampa Bay, 9-0, their ninth defeat in their last 10 games.
They were a below .500 team at 64-66 and they were six games behind Seattle for the last wild card spot in the American League, and more to the point, they would have to climb over Kansas City and Texas to challenge the Mariners.
Oh, and by the way, they were 12.5 behind Detroit in the Central Division.
Just three days later, the defeated those Mariners in one of those games they had no business winning, falling behind 4-0 in the first inning and being no-hit by George Kirby through five.
Kyle Manzardo broke up the no-no with a homer, and Nolan Jones, of all people, hit another. A seeing eye base hit by Angel Martinez drew the Guardians within one, and the won it in the ninth thanks to another big hit from Jones to start the rally.
They were back above .500 and within four of Seattle.
A three-game losing streak followed capped by a night in Boston where Cleveland hit three homers in a six run sixth off Red Sox’ ace Garrett Crochet, and skipper Steven Vogt took Hunter Gaddis out of the game in the bottom of the 8th with a man on first and two out. Cade Smith gave up four straight hits and the Guardians were back under .500 on September 2nd.
They were four behind for the last wild card spot and now, Tampa Bay was ahead of them as well.
Since then, the Guards’ pitching staff has allowed more than three runs just three times. They’ve won 16 of 18, playing their best baseball of the season and as of today, they are tied with Houston, passed in the standings by Seattle, for that last playoff spot, and they own the tie-breaker with the Astros.
And incredibly, they are just a game behind Detroit for the AL Central lead.
It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but who cares. We have all heard about what the Guardians record would be based on runs scored and runs against, but the only thing that matters is the win loss record.
In 1995, the Cleveland Indians were the best team in baseball. We think even the world champion Braves would admit that. In 2005, the Indians were 55-51 at the end of July, and then went on a roll, winning 37 of their next 49 and were sitting with the second-best record in the AL heading into the last week of the season.
They lost six of the last seven and missed the playoffs. They won the “team no one wanted to face” award, but no one had to play them.
Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
In the last week, Steven Vogt has gotten big hits from Jhonkensy Noel and George Valera and had key pitching performances from Kolby Allard and Jakob Junis. Just like everyone expected.
Every good winning streak is based on getting good pitching and this is no different. In those 17 contests, Guardians’ pitchers have allowed two runs or less in 14 of them. The offense doesn’t have to be good when the other team doesn’t score.
The good play has to last another week for the Guardians to pull this off. Keep winning and the odds are pretty good this team will be in the post-season once again.
Less than a month ago, that would have seemed crazy.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 