It has been a roller coaster season for the Cleveland Guardians, featuring offensive ineptitude, gambling scandals and a 10-game losing streak.
Yet, through it all, this team is still in the AL Central race.
The Guardians have done a strong job building momentum with a soft spot in their schedule to get back in the playoff chase.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about each team’s best-case scenario for the rest of the regular season, and he identified Cleveland’s as a surprising playoff berth.
“Survive the gambling scandal and maybe even go on a ‘nobody believes in us’ run to the postseason,” Miller wrote. “Losing Emmanuel Clase to the restricted list was supposed to be the death of a team that was already below .500. Instead, it has been something of a rallying cry for the Guardians, who have won back-to-back-to-back series against the [Colorado] Rockies, [Minnesota] Twins and [New York] Mets. And with 12 straight against the [Chicago] White Sox, Miami, Atlanta and Arizona on tap, they could close that 1.5-game gap in the wild-card race in a hurry. Maybe they band together and finish with a flourish on par with the 38-18 run to the finish line three years ago.”
Cleveland’s easy schedule is about to get even easier, and with the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers all faltering of late, the door has been opened for the Guardians to make the postseason either as an AL Wild Card or by winning the division.
Many believed Clase’s absence due to an MLB gambling investigation would be the final blow for the season, but he wasn’t having his best year to begin with, and the bullpen has proven it has the depth and top-end talent to overcome such a loss.
The team has come together and should have every reason to believe it can reach the postseason and make some noise once it gets there in what is looking to be a wide-open American League.
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