The Cleveland Guardians have made a major push recently to put themselves back into the playoff conversation. They currently sit three games behind the Chicago White Sox for first place in the AL Central.
The solid stretch of play has put them in the third spot in the AL Wild Card race right now. The Guardians’ recent play has kept them firm at 12th in the ESPN power rankings.
Insider Buster Olney hints that the Guardians could be in for a strong finish to the regular season.
“During the Terry Francona and Steven Vogt managerial years, Cleveland has historically finished strongly — only the Dodgers have a better September/October winning percentage than Cleveland since the start of 2013 — and now the Guardians have won nine of their last 12. With the playoff push underway, Chase DeLauter hit .363 in August while Steven Kwan hit .347, and Jose Ramirez is seemingly hitting with more authority,” Olney wrote.
It has been a struggle for this Guardians lineup throughout most of the regular season. This team has been carried by the excellent work from their pitching staff. Now, the lineup is finally starting to come around, and they’re doing it at the right time.
The Guardians control their own destiny heading into the final month of the season. They begin a series with the Tigers on Friday, and play the Orioles, White Sox, and Twins following that. Those are three divisional series that will be must-wins for the Guardians.
As Olney mentioned, DeLauter and Kwan have come around hugely with the bat recently. Both of them had their struggles throughout the season, so it’s great to see them finally getting back on track. The Guardians will need them to continue producing if they win to keep winning.
Obviously, Guardians fans would love to see this team jump up in the power rankings, but staying in the 12th position isn’t a bad thing. They’ve dropped their last two series, but they have some huge divisional series on deck.
This team is historically great in September, so we’ll see if that trend continues with this Guardians club.
NEXT: Guardians' Playoff Odds See Major Shift
