A Lot Of Success, But Guardians Have To Cash In (Sometime)

The Cleveland Guardians start their quest for their first World Championship since 1948 next Saturday, likely hosting the winner of the Wild Card Series matchup between the Astros and Tigers.

The first two games are at Progressive Field.

If you grew up in the sixties and seventies, when Cleveland baseball was largely a losing proposition, it might surprise you that the Indians/Guardians (and Blues, Naps, etc.) have the 7th highest winning percentage among the current Major League teams.

And if you limit this to current American League franchises, Cleveland is third, behind only the behemoths of the East, New York and Boston.

Among those top ten records, one thing sticks out, the number of world titles. Cleveland has the least with just two, ironically the only other team in this group with less than four titles is the club the Indians lost to in 2016, the Cubs have just three.

The franchise has won only six pennants, half of them coming in the last 30 years. Again, the regular season record is very good, but the A’s (15), Tigers (11) and the Orioles (7) have both won more American League championships, and remember, the Orioles were the lowly St. Louis Browns until 1955, and they only won once in 1944.

The White Sox and Twins have equaled the six pennants won by Cleveland, so they are actually tied for the least success achieved by the original members of the Junior Circuit.

This will be the 17th post-season appearance for the franchise, ranking behind New York (58), Oakland (29), Boston (25), Houston and Minnesota (each with 18, although it must be noted the Astros made the NL playoffs before coming over to the AL in 2013).

They have made the playoffs eight times in the AL, winning two World Series.

What is the point of rehashing a somewhat sad story?

It’s that it is time for the Guardians to cash in one.

We have heard about all the success in the wild card era, the Jacobs/Progressive Field era if you will. Fourteen post-season appearances in that span, 12 AL Central Division titles.

In that span, only the Yankees and Red Sox have made the playoffs more often, but they have each won multiple World Series.

Cleveland has dominated the division. Minnesota has won the second most division titles with nine, while the Tigers and White Sox have each won four and the Royals taking the crown just once.

But the White Sox and Royals each won the Series, Chicago winning in 2005 and Kansas City ten years later.

Minnesota has had trouble winning in the post-season recently, but most of their fans remember and celebrate their two World Series victories in 1987 and 1991.

It hasn’t been 76 years like it has for Cleveland baseball fans, but it has now been 40 years since the Tigers won their last Series in 1984.

The point is for all the success Cleveland has had since 1995; they need to cash in with a title. There was a discussion on social media about what franchise you would like to have as a fan over the last 50 years and Kansas City was an option.

Most fans selected the Royals because even though they have had some valleys, 17 seasons of 90 or more losses since 1992, they have the 1985 and 2015 World Series winners.

Yes, baseball is a sport that has a potentially volatile post-season, meaning any team that gets in the playoffs has a chance to win the world title. We’ve seen a few teams with less than 90 wins win it.

Heck, the 1997 Indians only won 86 games, and made it to game 7 of the Fall Classic.

So, we get the argument (and we’ve made it) to just get in and you have a shot. But what is missing from perhaps the best 30 year stretch of baseball in Cleveland?

1948 still rings in our ears.

Guardians And Their Incredible Bullpen Head To October

As the Beatles once said, it was a “Long and Winding Road” for the Cleveland Guardians in 2024. They rolled to a 38-19 start through the end of May, and looked to be on a path to 100+ victories.

But starting in June, the offense sputtered and over the next three months, Steven Vogt’s squad went 39-40 in the three summer months, through August. And then when the Kansas City Royals were breathing down their backs, they turned it on going 13-7 to date in September.

In the past few years, the American League Central Division was baseball’s poor stepchild, the weakest division in the sport. However, this season, it looks like three teams will make the post-season party, and in the next few days, the Guards will clinch a bye right to the best-of-five Division Series, where they will have home field advantage.

The offense is too dependent on Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and prior to the All-Star break, Steven Kwan, although if Kyle Manzardo can maintain what he is doing through the playoffs, it would go a long way.

But the Guardians have depended on their bullpen all year long, led by the sports’ best closer in Emmanuel Clase, a Cy Young Award candidate. He likely will not win, but he probably will finish second.

When Cleveland won the division title in 2022, Clase was incredible, going 3-4 with 42 saves and a 1.36 ERA, allowing just 43 hits in 72.2 innings.

He’s been better this year, saving 46 games with a 0.63 ERA, allowing just 37 hits in 71.1 innings.

And he’s backed by a pair of relievers having equally dominant years in rookie Cade Smith (1.96 ERA, 100 strikeouts in 73.1 IP) and Hunter Gaddis (1.53 ERA, 39 hits allowed in 70.2 IP).

Fox analyst John Smoltz said a few months ago that when you play the Guardians, you are essentially playing a five inning game. That’s how good those relievers have been.

What’s even more incredible is that in the past few weeks, we’ve seen even more dominance, as Tim Herrin (1.90 ERA, 63 Ks in 61.1 IP) and now recently called up Andrew Walters, drafted just last year, who has provided five appearances and has yet to allow a hit.

Just this week, the Guardians have also had great outings from Eli Morgan in the extra inning win over Minnesota, and Erik Sabrowski, called up at the end of August and saved Friday’s win over St. Louis with 2.1 scoreless innings.

Could Vogt need just four innings from a starting pitcher in the playoffs? That will be interesting to watch. Remember, Joe Torre and Terry Francona revolutionized relief pitching usage in the post-season by asking their primary relievers to get one more out, go 1.1 IP instead of just three outs.

The emergence of Herrin and Walters could really shorten the game for Cleveland.

We feared all season the lack of innings provided by the starting rotation this season would take a toll on the relief corps by August and September. So far, the bullpen might be even better down the stretch because of Herrin, the additions of Walters and Sabrowski, and the way Morgan has pitched.

He had problems with the gopher ball before this season, allowing 19 dingers over the past two season, but this year, he’s taken care of that issue to date, giving up just two long balls.

This is a contrast from Nick Sandlin, who has allowed 12 homers this year and 24 over the past two campaigns. Could he lose his spot on the playoff roster because of it?

Congratulations to the Central Division champs! Since the wild card era started in 1995, they’ve won 12 division titles, an incredible run.

One of these years, they are going to cash in with a World Series win. Could the bullpen make that year this year?

Guardians’ Struggling Due To Struggling Offense

The old adage in baseball is “you win with pitching”, and certainly that is true. The less runs you allow your opponent to score the better. It’s particularly true in the post-season, where every run scored should be precious.

However, in the regular season, you have to score to be successful. A look at the six highest scoring teams in the American League shows five teams which should make the post-season: New York, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, Minnesota, and Houston.

The Guardians are just outside that group, averaging 4.47 runs per game whereas the Astros are at 4.62.

And just when the Guards need to string some wins and hopefully clinch a division title and a first-round bye in the playoffs, their hitting is taking another ill-timed snooze.

Yes, they did come home after a sweep over the Chicago White Sox, but the Pale Hose will likely have the worst record in the history of modern baseball, on track to lose more than 120 games in 2024, and frankly, it is not as though the offense was clicking in the Windy City, scoring just 16 runs in the three games.

In the six contests prior to last night not played against a terrible team, the Guardians have scored 1, 3, 2, 0, 2, and 1 runs, a total of 9 runs for an average of 1.5 runs per game.

And as with the “slump” that occurred in August, the Guardians’ best three hitters aren’t producing. This isn’t to put blame on Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, and Steven Kwan, but it shows how much Steven Vogt’s roster depends on them for offense. Here are the numbers over the last 28 days:

Ramirez: .228 BA, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 683 OPS.
J. Naylor: .232, 2 HR, 14 RBI, 663 OPS
Kwan: .165, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 496 OPS and 309 on base percentage.

And it’s not as though their teammates are picking them up. Yes, Andres Gimenez and Brayan Rocchio have done better the past couple of weeks, but make no mistake, this is still a team with major offensive issues.

The league average on base percentage is .309. The Guardians have four players over that threshold on the team, the three players mentioned previously plus David Fry (.357).

As a team, Cleveland is tenth in the AL in drawing walks and ninth in batting average. They have hit a lot more home runs this season, ranking 7th, up from last in 2023. Since the All-Star break, their on base percentage is .295.

Last night’s three-run rally? It started with a walk to Angel Martinez, who demonstrated some patience at the plate in his first tenure with the big club.

No one is asking this group to be the 1999 Cleveland Indians which scored over 1000 runs, the last MLB team to do so. But they can’t have periods like Thursday night, when they scored two runs on four hits in the first two innings, and then get one hit the rest of the way.

In short, good hitters draw walks. Take a look at the AL leaders in drawing bases on balls. You see names like Judge, Soto, Henderson, Guerrero, and Devers. What you won’t see is the name of anyone on the Guardians.

That’s something to take a look at this off-season for sure.

Counting Down The Magic Numbers And What About Cobb?

September baseball is so cool when the team you follow is a contender. Scoreboard watching. Counting down the magic number. It’s all part of following baseball at a time when football is starting to consume the public.

Especially here in northeast Ohio.

With the new playoff set up in baseball, there are several magic numbers to watch. First and foremost, most people look at winning the division, because that’s what fans have been trained to do.

Currently that number is 12. When the two teams behind you play each other, one wants one team to win two out of three, the worst-case scenario is for one team to sweep. But last weekend the Royals swept the Twins, meaning Kansas City picked up ground when the Guardians lost to two of three to the Dodgers.

With Cleveland now holding a share of the best record in the American League, we are sure the Guardians would like to finish with one of the two best records in the league, thus being able to advance right to the Division Series, which is best-of-five, with the Guards have the home field advantage.

Right now, Houston is in first place in the West, and Cleveland is 5.5 games ahead of them. This means the magic number to bypass the Wild Card Series, best-of-three, is 13, with the Astros finishing the regular season with three games at Progressive Field.

And of course, there is another magic number associated with just getting into the post-season “tournament”, meaning the Guardians would be no worse than the sixth seed in the AL, currently held by the Twins, who hold a three-game lead over Detroit and four over Seattle and Boston.

That number would be 8, since Cleveland took the season series from Detroit, 7-6.

The penultimate trip of the regular season was a success if only because the Guardians went into KC, their closest rivals, and took two of three. They salvaged one game in Los Angeles, and then did what had to be done in Chicago against the team that seems in line to shatter the record for losing, which was symbolic for the expansion New York Mets, who famously went 40-120.

Now, there is only one trip left, a three-game trek to St. Louis next weekend. Otherwise, Steven Vogt’s squad spends the rest of their slate at home, but they don’t get any days off until they return from the trip.

That means the pitching staff gets no rest for another week and a half. Because Gavin Williams couldn’t get out of the first last Saturday and Ben Lively took a line drive off the thigh and pitched just two innings Tuesday, and yesterday, Matthew Boyd couldn’t get through the 5th, so the bullpen has been taxed. Again.

And add to that, Alex Cobb’s problems. Yes, he’s pitched well in his last two starts, but he’s also been out with a cracked fingernail and a blister. Can he make some starts on turn in the last two and a half weeks?

We are sure the management would feel better about him in the post-season if he could do just that.

We didn’t anticipate conversations about the playoffs before this season started, but it is certainly fun to have them. Time to enjoy the games AND the scoreboard watching.

Win Vs. KC May Have Turned It All Around For Guardians

It is very difficult to come from way behind in sports. How many times have you seen a team come from say, 20 points down in the second half of a game, trimming the lead to say, three or four points, only to fall back and wind up losing by double digits.

The same can be true chasing a team in the standings. In the past week, we have kind of seen just that with the Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals.

On June 25th, the Guardians were in first place in the AL Central with a 51-26 record, leading Minnesota by nine games and the Royals by 10, as KC sat with a 43-38 mark.

You can see by the records that the teams had played about half of their season’s schedule.

But last week, the Royals finally tracked the Guardians down, winning the first three games of a four-game series in Cleveland. The two teams were tied in the standings, but because Kansas City won the season series, it meant technically, KC was in first place.

In the fourth game of the set, the Guards looked like a weary squad and trailed after six innings, 5-2. It seemed to be the equivalent of the 1978 Boston Massacre, when the Red Sox, who had a double digit lead earlier in the season, were famously swept at home by the Yankees.

Eventually, the two teams had to play a 163rd game to decide the American League East.

But we digress. In the bottom of the 7th, Cleveland rallied for four runs to take a 6-5 lead, added another run in the 8th, and when Emmanuel Clase closed out the Guardians’ victory, the series ended with a one game lead for Steven Vogt’s group.

Since then, Kansas City has lost an additional six consecutive contests, while Cleveland has won five out of six and taken a 4.5 game advantage over the Twins and 5.5 over the Royals.

Yes, the Royals lost Vinnie Pasquantino, their second or third best hitter, having driven in 97 runs in 2024, and that has really hurt their offense. They haven’t scored more than three runs since he went down.

That seventh inning at Progressive Field seems to have shifted the momentum for now in the division title race. Cleveland didn’t let Kansas City pass them, and the Royals seem to have expended a lot of energy in tracking the Guardians down.

Meanwhile, the Guardians seem to have their starting rotation pitching as well as it has all season long, although we all know that could change at the drop of a hat. Although we were skeptical of the acquisitions of Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb by the front office, they seem to have stabilized the starting staff.

Boyd has a 2.38 ERA over five starts, while Cobb, who had a perfect game through six innings on Sunday, has a 2.76 ERA.

Overall, the rotation is giving Vogt at six innings in four straight starts, allowing the highly taxed bullpen to get some valuable rest.

Last week, when the Guards were struggling, we said we hoped for a big event, a big home run, a walk-off win, to get this team going in the right direction again.

That seventh inning in the last game of the Royals series in Cleveland may have been that shot in the arm.

Death. Taxes. Clase. All Hail To The Franchise Saves Leader

Since the Cleveland baseball team started the most successful period of baseball in franchise history in 1995, they’ve usually had an excellent closer.

It started with Jose Mesa and his tremendous 1995 season where he saved 46 games with a 1.13 ERA and finished second in the American League Cy Young Award race. Mesa also saved 39 victories in ’96, but by 1997, Mike Jackson was sort of sharing the job with him.

We all remember though, it was Mesa on the mound in Game 7 of the World Series, trying to protect a 2-1 lead for the world championship, but he didn’t save that one.

Jackson had the job for the next two years, which resulted in division titles, saving 39 and 40 games in back-to-back years.

With the bullpen struggling in 2000, Cleveland traded for Bob Wickman, who held the job through the middle of the 2006 season, saving 45 for the 2005 squad that just missed the playoffs. In total, Wickman saved 139 games, and passed Doug Jones as the franchise all-time save leader.

Jones was a relief ace in a different era, saving 303 games in his career. The great Peter Gammons once said that his changeup, his best weapon, was as dominant as Nolan Ryan’s fastball. He saved 129 games for Cleveland, mostly over a three-year period.

When Jones saved 36 games for Houston in 1992, he pitched 111 innings, something unheard of right now.

Cody Allen was the closer during the Terry Francona era from 2014-2018, although he arguably wasn’t the most heralded bullpen arm in that period. Andrew Miller’s performance in the 2016 AL Championship Series earned him the MVP of that series.

Allen was used hard, saving 149 for Cleveland, pitching in 67 games for five consecutive seasons.

Friday night, the Indians/Guardians put a new name at the top of the saves list, as Emmanuel Clase recorded his 150th save, topping Allen on the list.

When the Guardians traded for Clase after the 2019 season, getting him as part of the package for two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, we remember Francisco Lindor saying when he faced him in ’19, it was like hitting a bowling ball.

Clase missed the 2020 season under suspension for testing positive for a PED, and started the ’21 season sharing the closer job with James Karinchak. He quickly won the job, saving 24 games with a 1.29 ERA.

His save on Friday gave him his 40th of the year, the third consecutive season reaching that milestone. His highest ERA in any of those four seasons was 3.22 posted last season.

One of the things we always say about relief pitchers is they cannot walk people and cannot give up home runs. Clase is a prime example of that. The most hitters he has walked in a given season is 16 (’21 & ’23), and this year he has walked just eight.

Long balls? When the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen took him deep Friday, it was shocking. Last year, a year Clase was dissatisfied with personally, he allowed four home runs. That’s his career high.

After this year’s All-Star Game, Royals’ veteran catcher Salvador Perez was asked about his biggest thrill of this year’s game. He replied it was catching Clase. That’s the kind of respect the right-hander has among his peers.

We said before the game that if the AL had the lead in the ninth, there was no question on who Bruce Bochy would give the ball to. It was going to be Emmanuel Clase.

He’s the best in the game right now without question. And now, he’s the best closer ever to wear a Cleveland uniform.

When he saves a game, we post the following on social media: Death. Taxes. Clase.

It’s Crunch Time For The Guardians.

Here we go. The Cleveland Guardians have a single game lead in the AL Central with 30 games to play and we have a good ol’ fashioned race for the division title.

It started yesterday with a doubleheader sweep by the Royals, the first two of seven games between Kansas City and Cleveland over a ten-day stretch. And there is a quartet of games at Progressive Field against the Twins September 16th through the 19th.

Pennant race baseball is a lot of fun even though Cleveland fans haven’t experienced a lot of it since the franchise returned to prominence in 1994.

Since the three divisional set up, when Cleveland has won the division, they did it pretty comfortably: 30 game margin in 1995, 14.5 in ’96, 6 games in ’97, 9 in ’98, 21.5 in ’99, 6 games in 2001, 8 in 2007, 8 in 2016, 17 in ’17, 13 in ’19, and their last division title was won by 11 games in 2022.

Now this year, it may wind up the same, with the Guardians coasting into the title by going on a hot streak.

The most fun last month of the season might have been 2013, Terry Francona’s first year as Indians’ skipper. On Labor Day, Cleveland was in second place in the Central, 8.5 behind the first place Tigers. In terms of the wild card, and there were only two that year, the Tribe was 3.5 behind the Rays, who at the time held the last playoff spot.

By September 15th, they had trimmed that margin to just a half game and wound up hosting the Wild Card Game against Tampa by winning their last 11 games to cap off a 21-6 month.

By the way, they lost that one game playoff and the Rays’ starting pitcher was current Guardian Alex Cobb.

While it is likely (not guaranteed) that all three teams, the Guardians, Royals, and Twins will make the playoffs, winning the division takes added importance this season.

Right now, Cleveland has a five-game edge over AL West leading Houston, and the division winners with the two best records at the end of the season advance right to the Division Series. Keep in mind, the Astros and Guardians finish the regular season with a three-game set at Progressive Field.

After the second set of games against the Royals, the last three being in KC, the Guardians then have to travel to the west coast to take on the Dodgers, before heading to Chicago for a series with the Sox, now of course managed by former Cleveland standout, Grady Sizemore.

At the conclusion of that excursion pretty much ends the road season for Steven Vogt’s crew, with only a three-game set in St. Louis remaining away from the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

As for the Royals, they have just 13 home games left and following these games in Cleveland, they head to Houston for four there. They also have road series at Yankee Stadium and Atlanta, the latter to finish the season.

The Twins play 19 more at Target Field and have 14 road contests. They are currently playing the Braves, and have three more in Kansas City while the Guards are in LA.

They end the year against the Orioles, who could also be fighting for playoff seeding.

While it may not be enjoyable to watch, especially if the Guardians’ hitting is struggling, meaningful September (and late August) baseball is supposed to be fun. Besides the Cleveland game, you also have the scoreboard watching.

Let’s hope there is more hope at the end of this stretch and not more questions.

Don’t Look Now, But Playoffs Aren’t A Sure Thing For Guardians

For the first two months of this baseball season, the Cleveland Guardians were on a magic carpet. After beating Washington 7-1 on May 31st, they were 38-19 and had a four-game lead in the AL Central Division.

Since that victory, the Guards are 36-36. Notice the number of games played in each segment we’ve talked about. They have been a “meh” team longer than they were great.

We remember in 1984 after the Detroit Tigers got off to a 35-5 start, someone asked manager Sparky Anderson about Toronto, who the interviewer told Anderson had the same record as Detroit since a specific date.

Anderson snapped back and told the media person something to the effect that it was too bad the season didn’t begin on the later date.

So, while the Guardians have been struggling for two and a half months, they’ve earned their spot on top of the division because of the fast start.

But that only lasts so long.

Their division lead is down to just two games over the Royals and Twins, but what is more disturbing is a playoff spot isn’t even guaranteed. Their lead over Boston, the first team out if you will is .5 games, and really is 7.5 because the Guards won the season series.

However, if you don’t get things straightened out soon, even that lead could dwindle. And there is still plenty of baseball to be played.

We have talked about the offense lately, and since the All-Star break, a period of 34 games, the offense has scored three runs or less 19 times! And in the last 17 games, dating back to the doubleheader loss to Arizona on August 7th, they have scored four or more runs in just five games.

One huge problem has been the production of two of the team’s three best offensive players since the break.

Jose Ramirez has been, well Jose Ramirez, hitting .273 with 9 homers in that time, but prior to last night, he was in a 1 for 20 slide over the last week, and during the past 14 days, he’s 9 for 42.

Josh Naylor is batting .214 with a 703 OPS after the break. Before last night’s 13-5 win over Texas, he was in a 1 for 22 slump, and 7 for 44 over the past two weeks.

As for Kwan, who batted .352 heading into the Midsummer Classic, he’s batted just .206 with a 603 OPS since. And he’s 3 for 24 over the past week, and 7 for 47 over the past 14 days.

That means over the last seven days, that trio, without a doubt the Guardians’ best hitters, have gone 4 for 46. And with the rest of the lineup not looking like the 1999 Indians, who scored over 1000 runs, it’s no wonder the Guardians cannot score runs.

Some Guardians’ broadcasters and supporters will point out that some other good teams have struggled lately. While that’s true, over the last 50 games, Cleveland’s record is worse than all of the contenders, and actually ranks with teams like the Angels, Nationals, and Rockies.

Those are teams you shouldn’t want to be associated with.

There are still 33 games to be played, and who knows, maybe one solid game, a walkoff win, Ramirez and Naylor get hot, Kwan has a four hit night, something turns it around for the Guardians and they go on a run.

But it’s fair to be concerned. We are sure Steven Vogt and the front office are, even if they don’t show it publicly. It would be a shame if this season, which started out as so much fun, didn’t wind up with baseball in October.

Offense Has Replaced Rotation As Guardians’ Chief Issue

All season long, we have worried about the starting pitching of the Cleveland Guardians. Is the rotation good enough? Is it providing enough innings to protect the bullpen? Will they be able to overcome the injury to Shane Bieber and the ineffectiveness of Logan Allen and Triston McKenzie?

At this point, the rotation is what it is, a group of pitchers who hopefully can give the team an effective six innings of work and turn it over to a dominant bullpen.

Since the All-Star break, the Guardians have turned into team streak, winning five in a row, losing seven straight, followed by another five-game winning streak, and now a three-game losing skein.

Unless Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb start pitching like Sam McDowell and Corey Kluber, this is how the Guardians’ starting pitching will be going forward. And now, Cobb is going to miss time with a broken fingernail.

However, the offense is sputtering. In April, the Guardians were a surprise with the bats, averaging 5.24 runs per game. They were still going strong in May, scoring 5.04 runs. In June, that figure dropped to 4.56 and in July, it dipped further to 3.36.

This month, that figure has improved slightly to 4.23 runs per contest, but overall, since the All-Star break, they have scored 3.76 runs/game. The team batting average is .222 (compared to .243 prior) the on base percentage is .279 (.316 before), and the slugging percentage has dropped from .405 to .368.

The hitting has become too reliant on the home run, mostly because the batting average is subpar, and no one seems to be drawing walks either. Pitchers seemed to have learned the best way to attack the Cleveland lineup is to throw a lot of changeups, and there hasn’t seemed to be adjustments.

It seems you can count the number of hits going to the opposite field on one hand over the last week. For us, it seems like it is just at bat after at bat trying to pull pitches on the outside half on the plate, resulting in weak grounders to second base and/or shortstop.

Individually, the numbers are equally ugly. The only two players who have OPS over 750 are Jose Ramirez and Jhonkensy Noel, and the latter is still striking out in roughly one-third of his at bats.

Only Josh Naylor has an OPS above 700 at 746. Every other single Guardians’ player is below 700, and the league average is 704.

Coincidentally, that trio are also the only Cleveland players with on base percentages over .300. Cleveland ranks in the bottom five in batting average, walks, and OPS since the break, and is 22nd out of 30 teams in runs scored.

They’ve been shut out four times in that span.

Simply put, you have to score runs in the regular season, and the Guardians have scored two or fewer runs in 11 of the 29 games played since the All-Star Game. Amazingly, they’ve won three of those contests.

They put up three runs in an additional five games, meaning in over half the games played after the break, they have put up three runs or less. And again, that’s a tough way to win baseball games.

Earlier, when they were scoring more runs, the team seemed to work counts and draw more walks. This is reflected in the monthly OBP as a team, which are as follows in chronological order: .321, .312, .322, .285, .286.

Perhaps playing guys who will take a walk would help. We’ve already advocated to bring back Angel Martinez, whose .306 OBP (12 walks) would rank 5th on the team if he were called back up.

This is not a team that can sit back and wait for the home run. They have to get guys on base and move them. That’s been lacking for the past six weeks or so, and if they can’t start scoring runs, it will be tough to hold off Minnesota and Kansas City.

Guards Are Winning. Doesn’t Mean There Aren’t Worries.

The Cleveland Guardians have one of the best records in baseball. It depends on the day, but there are times they are the game’s winningest team, but they are in the conversation with the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the other hand, they are just two games ahead of Minnesota and four ahead of Kansas City in the AL Central, and the schedule is a gauntlet through the end of the year. On this trip alone they play the NL Central leaders in Milwaukee and the Yanks.

Right after Labor Day, they make their last extended road trip of the season, with visits to Kansas City and Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers.

The point is, even with all the success they have achieved this season, there is some worry as to what happens over the next six weeks.

We have been concerned about the starting pitching all season long, and although Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb both pitched well in their last start, it’s still a worry, mostly because they simply don’t pitch enough innings.

Neither of the veterans was able to finish six innings, which isn’t a rarity for the rotation. The last time a Guardians’ starter went six innings was Gavin Williams last Saturday against the Twins, the game that broke the seven-game losing streak.

Since the All-Star break, a period of 27 games (1/6th of a season), Cleveland pitchers have completed six innings just three times. The last game a Guards’ starter went seven? The last game we could find was May 10th, when Carlos Carrasco went that long vs. the White Sox.

We know starters aren’t expected to go nine innings anymore, but pitching six shouldn’t be an anomaly. Yes, the pitching staff ranks 2nd in the AL in ERA, but the reason for that is the bullpen, and right now, Steven Vogt is down to three guys are haven’t started to leak oil–Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and of course, Emmanuel Clase.

Even getting six innings consistently out of a starter is a dream right now.

The other reason for concern is the offense. While pitching wins in the playoffs, you have to score runs in the regular season, and of the teams competing for the league’s best record and in the Central Division, the Guards have scored the least amount of runs.

Right now, the Guardians have the opposite of a top to bottom lineup. Among players with over 150 plate appearances, they have four hitters with above average OPS: Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor, Steven Kwan, and David Fry.

Two of those hitters, Kwan and Fry, have been slumping since the Midsummer Classic.

Kwan had a .352 batting average and 920 OPS in the first half and had us dreaming of the first Cleveland batting champ since Bobby Avila in 1954. So far in the second half, he’s hitting .224 (.291 on base vs. .407 prior) and 646 OPS.

He seems to be hitting a lot of fly balls now, which could mean he is selling out for power? But a return to the hitter we saw before the All-Star game could be dynamic for the Guards’ offense.

Fry made the American League squad on the basis of an incredible April and May, in which he hit .352 with 8 HR and 27 RBI. Since June 1st, he’s batted .216 with 4 dingers and 15 ribbies. He still is killing lefties, with .301 average and 1047 OPS against southpaws.

He has a 666 OPS vs. RHP but continues to bat 5th when he plays.

The problem for Vogt and the organization is they don’t seem to have a lot of alternatives.

Jhonkensy Noel has provided pop, this week hitting three homers, but in the last three games, he’s 0 for 8 with six whiffs. Lane Thomas has been ineffective since coming over from Washington going 6 for 50 with 21 strikeouts.

Daniel Schneemann in the last 28 days: .156 BA and 220/200/420 splits. Will Brennan has hit since coming back from AAA, but he is what he is, basically a singles hitter that doesn’t walk (301 OBP, 391 slugging).

Can the offense find help? Can they score enough down the stretch, or will it continue to be a huge load on the bullpen?

One of the best records in baseball? Yes. That doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns.