Guardians need to capitalize on their weak September schedule

The Cleveland Guardians find themselves in familiar waters yet again this season. Last year the Guardians entered Septmeber with a 68-68 record. This year they entered the final month of the MLB regular season a game better with a 69-68 record.

The Guardians have been on a small heater, as they entered play on Tuesday with an 8-2 in their last ten while averaging five and a half runs per game. Patrick Bailey and Chase DeLauter were the best bats during this stretch, both exceeding a 200 wRC+. 

They're also just three games behind the White Sox in the race for the American League Central, and have a 27.6% chance to win the division, per FanGraphs.

While there's still a ton of room for them to build on that percentage, one added benefit if that they have one of the easiest schedules for the rest of the season. The Guardians remaining opponents have a .483 winning percentage. 

The Guardians have only two remaining series against teams over .500. Their first comes in the middle of September when they have a three-game home series against the White Sox. The other series is their penultimate one against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The rest of the month is filled with the series against Blue Jays, Twins, Tigers, Athletics, Royals, and Orioles. Together, these teams have a negative run differential of -339. That even includes the Tigers' positive run differential of 55. 

The Guardians September schedule should help them in their quest toward the postseason

The Guardians best path to the postseason is via the Wild Card, and they're going to get a chance to decide their Wild Card fate one way or another via their upcoming series against the Orioles.

The Guardians are currently hold the American League's third Wild Card spot, where they just a half-game lead over the Orioles. With the AL race being bunched up like it is, there are four teams behind the Guardians that are within three-and-a-half games or better. 

And three of those four teams play the Guardians in September. The Blue Jays are just 1 1/2 games back, the aformentioned Orioles are just 1/2 game back, and the Twins are 3 1/2 games back of that spot.

The Rangers are also 1 1/2 games behind the Guardians, but the two teams have already played their two series against each other.

The Guardians went just 13-13 in August, through they needed a strong finish to the month to reach that .500 mark. They'll need to play much better to safely secure a trip to October baseball.

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