The Cleveland Guardians have fallen back to earth.
Stephen Vogt’s team enjoyed its best stretch of the season, compiling the best record in all of baseball since July 7.
Then, the last eight games came.
They’ve fallen to 1-7 during that stretch, and, more importantly, they’ve failed to get any type of momentum at the plate.
As pointed out by team insider Tim Stebbins, this cold stretch looks awfully similar to their dreadful June:
“The Guardians only had three hits on Saturday, all singles. Their offensive output is one of the larger takeaways from this recent downturn. Consider their production from a few extended stretches: During their 10-game losing streak (June 26-July 6), the Guardians averaged 1.5 runs per game, recorded a .498 OPS and posted a .096 average with runners in scoring position. During their 23-9 stretch, the Guardians averaged 5.3 runs per game, recorded a .740 OPS and posted a .271 average with RISP. Entering Saturday, Cleveland was 1-6 in its past seven games while averaging 2.6 runs per game, to go along with a .549 OPS and a .163 average with runners in scoring position,” Stebbins wrote.
This team wasn’t built to rake the baseball out of the park.
There was always going to be some regression to the mean; that’s just the nature of the lineup.
Nevertheless, there’s no way to justify these struggles either.
Even Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez have failed to be up to the task during the past week or so, and this team needs more from its leaders.
Fortunately, while this team hasn’t fared well lately, they still have a chance to close out the season on a high note and make the playoffs.
They’re sitting four games behind in the race for the final AL wild-card spot, and there are still 34 games left in the campaign.
The margin for error is getting pretty close to zero.
But after watching this team get right back on track and climb its way back to postseason contention, they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt.
That doesn’t mean they can afford to just rest on their laurels, though, and they will have to tweak things up to straighten the course of the ship.
NEXT: David Fry Gets Honest About Recent Guardians Struggles
