Guardians offense goes cold, Padres complete sweep

It is official. After a series win in Kansas City to start of the season, the Guardians follow up with being swept in San Diego. It was all thanks to the offense turning ice cold, just after putting up 16 runs on the Royals.

But you have to look at the opponent more in this one as the Padres offense put on a show, outscoring the Guardians 14-2 in the first two games alone. You also have to look into the pitching match-ups. More specifically, the final two games of the series.

Right-handed pitchers Michael King and Dylan Cease took the mound back-to-back for the Padres, their top two starters to start the season in their rotation. King had a whopping 11 strikeouts Tuesday night, keeping Cleveland's bats silent throughout the contest. Cease followed up King's strong outing with one of his own, with seven strikeouts in the series finale on Wednesday to complete the sweep of the Guardians.

During Tuesday night's shutout, the Guardians offense went 2-for-29 at the plate. hey did perform better on Wednesday, going 8-for-33 and scoring two runs. The offense did manage to cut down on strikeouts with nine on Wednesday compared to 16 from the night before. 

Cleveland's offensive woes may seem like a reason to panic, but it is important to keep in mind that this Padres pitching staff leads the league in the least runs allowed (11) and ERA (1.50) to start off the season. This could just be a case of a work-in-progress offense facing the top two arms of a good San Diego rotation, and maybe what played out in this series should have been somewhat expected.

With the Guardians dropping to 2-4 on the season, most fans are thinking that the season is over, but it is not the case in the slightest, with 156 games remaining on the season schedule. Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres remain one of the two undefeated teams left. That other team? The 8-0 reigning World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who San Diego had on the ropes in the 2024 NLDS.

Oh yeah, one last thing. With their 2-4 record, the Guardians are tied with every other team in the AL Central, and the race for who will end up winning the division is just getting started.