The Cleveland Guardians have the easiest remaining schedule in baseball. There is one stretch of games in June that stands out above everything else on the calendar, and a national analyst has already circled it.
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle went through the biggest winners and storylines across the league heading into June and landed on a three-game series in mid June that he believes deserves must-watch status. The matchup he identified is Cleveland at Milwaukee from June 16th through the 18th.
“Cleveland at Milwaukee, June 16 to 18. In some ways, these franchises are each other’s doppelganger, though they don’t go about things in precisely the same way. But all they do is win, even as the projection forecasts miss on both teams year after year. No one seems to be able to figure them out, but now they get to try to figure each other out over three days in a clash between teams very likely to be ensconced atop their respective divisions when they play,” Doolittle wrote.
Both franchises operate with payrolls that most competing teams would never accept. Both develop pitching at a rate that defies explanation given their resources. Both find ways to manufacture runs without relying on the kind of middle of the order power that most analytics models say is required to win consistently in the major leagues. And both sit at the top of their respective divisions right now while the projection systems that missed on them in March continue to miss on them in June.
The Guardians pitching staff leads all of baseball in strikeouts. The Brewers rank fourth. Both rotations are built to win low scoring, well pitched games where every run matters and every at bat has consequences. The three-game series shapes up as exactly the kind of series that gets decided by one pitch in the seventh inning, one stolen base that leads to the go ahead run, or one defensive play that saves two runs and changes the entire outcome.
Nobody can figure either of these teams out. In two weeks, they get to try to figure each other out.
Mark June 16th on the calendar. That series is going to be worth every minute of attention it receives.
NEXT: 2 Guardians Players Notched Notable Career-Highs Against Yankees
