The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season

The Cleveland Guardians have lost five in a row, but there isn’t any time to dwell on this horrid stretch of offense.

Despite the five straight losses, the Guardians are still tied for the AL Central lead with the Minnesota Twins, and the good news is that this week presents a golden opportunity for Cleveland to get back on track.

Starting Monday night, the Guardians head to Kansas City to take on the Royals in a three-game series. With the way the offense is going no win is guaranteed, but you can’t ask for a much better chance to get right than with Kansas City, a team that is playing out the string on a lost season and has some of the worst pitching currently known to man.

Then, most importantly, the Guardians open a three-game series in Minnesota Friday night.

Dating back to August 28th, the last game of that four-game series in Seattle, the Guardians have scored a grand total of nine runs in seven games. Cleveland has a .289 BABIP in that stretch, which is still 19th in baseball, and they’re still striking out less than any other team in the game. It’s just that none of it is translating to runs. Part of it is the good pitching the Guardians have faced this past week, but it’s likely far more to do with an offense collectively struggling for, really, the first time all season.

And now, they’ll have to figure things out quickly, because time is running out on the season the chance to finish their improbable run to the postseason. Luckily, with only 30 games left to play, eight are against the Twins; the Guardians fully control their own destiny in 27% of their remaining schedule. The rest of the calendar includes the likes of that juicy six-game series at home against the Royals to end the season, the Angels, and the Rangers, so it’s not so much a gauntlet as other stretches have been.

But it won’t matter if Cleveland can’t score any runs.