Steven Kwan Addresses What’s Been Frustrating About Guardians

Steven Kwan offered one of the more candid assessments of Cleveland’s recent slide following Sunday’s series loss to the White Sox, a defeat that dropped the Guardians to a season-high three games below .500 and prompted a rare team meeting from manager Stephen Vogt. The Guardians fell 5-3 in the rubber match, extending a stretch that has seen the club go 2-6 in August and 7-15 since the All-Star break, a slide significant enough that Chicago now holds a four-game lead in the American League Central.

Kwan did not shy away from naming exactly what has been holding Cleveland’s offense back during the recent skid.

“I just feel we’re so close. We’re getting the runners on, but we’re waiting for that one big hit. It’s disappointing; it doesn’t feel like our brand of baseball. But compared to last year, I feel like we’re in a much better spot. It’s easy to have some good perspective. We play the White Sox one more time and we’ve got better baseball ahead of us,” Kwan said.

Vogt echoed that same tone after the loss, saying the team was not thrilled with where things stand but stressed it was time to turn the page starting Tuesday. Team meetings are reportedly not something Vogt leans on often, which made Sunday’s gathering carry extra weight in the clubhouse. Catcher Austin Hedges noted that whenever Vogt speaks up, his voice resonates with the group. The urgency is real, too. Cleveland sits just a game and a half back of the final Wild Card spot, but its four-game divisional deficit to Chicago effectively plays as five games given the White Sox hold a 6-4 edge in the season series, the first tiebreaker between the two clubs.

With a road series in Detroit up next and the head-to-head finale against Chicago still more than a month away, the Guardians know the margin for error is shrinking fast. If Kwan’s diagnosis proves accurate and the timely hitting starts to show up, Cleveland still has enough talent and enough season left to make a real push back into the thick of the race.