Assumptions about Guardians' foes provide even more ammunition for them to break White Sox fans' hearts

While the postseason hasn’t officially started, there’s an argument to be made that the Guardians have been playing must-win games since the start of September. 

And they’ve been able to meet the moment so far thanks to a 12-7 September that shot them to the front of the American League Central. With a week to go, the Guardians control their destiny in the division. 

However, their pathway to make that happen features plenty of quality pitching. 

We’ll get our first example of that tonight when the Guardians open their critical three-game series against the Red Sox by going against budding ace Peyton Tolle before finishing the series with starts against Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez. 

The Red Sox may be locked into the American League’s No. 5 seed, but they’re not taking their foot off the gas for their series against the Guardians. 

And it doesn’t get any easier after that. Although the Guardians are finishing the season with a series against the lowly Royals, they’re likely going to have to face off against Michael Wacha, Noah Cameron and Daniel Lynch IV. 

That’s a tough sextet to finish the season with, which White Sox fans wasted no time noticing. 

Not so fast, my friend. 

The Guardians are going to face off against plenty of quality pitching this week

Yes, the Guardians are going to face off against quality pitching the rest of the way, there’s more to this story than just that. 

As mentioned above, the Red Sox are already locked into their postseason spot so it’s hard to believe they’re going to go full bore in all their games against the Guardians. Plus, it looks like their weekend series could be impacted by some nasty weather coming this weekend. 

The Red Sox may need to play a game on next Monday’s off-day — it’s hard to believe that won’t play some kind of factor in how they set up their pitching. 

And even if the Red Sox don’t mess with their pitching, they’re starting Parker Messick tonight and have Foster Griffin going tomorrow before a TBD on Thursday.  Both Messick and Griffin should put the Guardians in a good spot to win in their starts.

That takes us to the Royals, who are opening the week with a three-game series against the White Sox. The Royals projected starters for that series are Lynch (Tuesday), Seth Lugo (Wednesday) and Randy Dobnak (Thursday). 

Meanwhile, the White Sox are rolling with Anthony Kay later today and Erick Fedde on Wednesday so it’s not like they’re rolling out with a murder’s row of starters (especially since they just shifted Luis Castillo to the bullpen). 

There’s no denying the Guardians are going to face off against plenty of quality pitching across the next six days, but they’ve had to face off against plenty of that in the past couple months and were still able to crawl their way back into the postseason picture. 

What’s one more week?

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