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A weekend of baseball the Cleveland Guardians would love to forget

Cleveland was on the wrong end of a sweep in Cincinnati
ByJames Mastrucci|
May 16, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; A detail view of the bat of Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor (23) as he prepares on deck in the ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
May 16, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; A detail view of the bat of Cleveland Guardians catcher Bo Naylor (23) as he prepares on deck in the ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Guardians entered this past weekend's three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds with a chance to build upon their successful early start to the season and maintain or even close the gap between themselves and the surprising Detroit Tigers. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, as they found themselves on the wrong end of a three-game sweep.

Three straight losses to the Reds in Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park was not something anyone really expected from the Guardians. Despite their negative run differential, this was a team that was winning games more often than not and had won four of their previous five series. Losing three straight games to a middle-of-the-road Reds team is not something that should have happened and is, honestly, inexcusable.

Cleveland was outscored 12-6 in the series and outhit 29-22 by Cincinnati. Not helping matters was the entire Guardians lineup being out-homered by former outfielder Will Benson 4-3. Benson looked like he was prime Barry Bonds in this series against Cleveland's pitching staff, seemingly hitting anything and everything he could over the outfield fence.

The only real positive to take away from this series was the performance of Slade Cecconi making his Guardians debut. Cecconi would allow three runs on five hits while striking out eight in 5 innings of work in Saturday's 4-1 loss to Cincinnati. While Cecconi is being tagged with the loss here, this is the type of outing that should bode well moving forward and could help the Guardians navigate the absence of Ben Lively a little bit easier.

Even though this past weekend did not work out the way the Guardians had intended, at 25-21. they are still very much in the mix, not only in the AL Central but the American League as a whole. Cleveland is currently in possession of one of three AL Wild Card spots alongside two other AL Central foes (Minnesota and Kansas City). Yes, they are 5.5 games back of Detroit right now in the division, but that is nothing to worry about at this time. All the Guardians need to concern themselves with right now is taking care of business against the teams they are facing on that particular day, while everything else will sort itself out over the rest of the season.