Guardians enter pivotal stretch with three-game series against New York Mets 

It’s hard to believe, but August is here. The All-Star Break and trade deadline have come and gone, meaning that we’re firmly in the middle of the dog days of the MLB season. 

While this Guardians season has featured slumps, trades and enough suspensions to last a lifetime, they enter play on Monday just three games back of a postseason spot thanks to a strong run of play over the past three weeks. 

They’ll now face their toughest test of the past month when they head to Flushing to take on the New York Mets for an important three-game series at Citi Field.

While there’s still two months of baseball left to be played, the Guardians have worked themselves into a situation where every series carries a ton of weight in their quest to make the postseason. 

Guardians enter pivotal stretch with three-game series against New York Mets 

While the Guardians dropped Sunday’s series finale to the Minnesota Twins, they got the job done by picking up wins on Friday and Saturday. They’ve now won four of the five series they’ve played in the second half, and are three games back in the Wild Card race and eight games back in the AL Central.

The Guardians have now gone 16-7 over their last 23 games, which is the best mark in the American League over that time period. 

Cleveland’s offense has a reached a new level over that stretch as well, as they have a wRC+ of 120 in the second half (fourth-best mark in baseball) and have three hitters hitting .300 or better since the All-Star break (José Ramírez, Kyle Manzardo, Daniel Schneemann and Brayan Rocchio). 

Ramírez has hit .344 in 16 games since the All-Star Break, and has scored an MLB-leading 17 runs, which is evidence of the strong production from hitters behind him from hitters like Manzardo (11 RBI) and Rocchio (13 RBI). 

Cleveland’s offense will now have to match that production against a Mets team that has the fifth-best ERA in baseball. The Guardians will be going against Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and Devid Peterson in the series, all of whom have an ERA under 3.50. 

It’s fair to assume at least one of the games will come down to Cleveland’s revamped bullpen, which is still adjusting to life without Emmanuel Clase. Cade Smith was nails for two innings on Friday and Hunter Gaddis picked up his first career save on Saturday, which is a great sign.

But now they’ll be going against a strong Mets team as opposed to a Twins team that’s already shifted their focus to next year. 

But it doesn’t look like he or Luis Ortiz are going to be coming back any time soon, so this is the new normal for Cleveland. But, as last week’s bullpen game proved, the Guardians’ bullpen also has some solid middle-leverage arms. It also helps that Cleveland’s starting pitchers have been pitching better as of late, as Tanner Bibee was the only starter to not go at least five innings last week. 

The last time the Guardians went to Citi Field, the Mets picked up a series sweep highlighted by a back-breaking walk-off single from Francisco Lindor. 

It’s time for them to exorcise those demons.