Guardians' rise continues after another successful week

Not that long ago, it seemed like the Cleveland Guardians were in a very rough spot, with the potential of this season being a very long one. Luckily, that has all changed with the team playing at a higher level, with their 20-15 record entering play on Monday being third-best in the American League.

Cleveland's improvement in the win-loss department has resulted in a relatively steady rise up MLB Power Rankings lists, and the latest version appearing on Bleacher Report is no exception. Joel Reuter has the Guardians ranked just inside the Top 10, coming in at ninth overall.

"The Guardians played .500 baseball through their first 18 games, but have since won four of their last five series to jump back into the thick of the AL Central race alongside the Tigers and Royals", notes Reuter, as a reason why Cleveland has continued their upward movement on this list.

Speaking of Detroit, the Tigers are the only other team that resides in the American League Central division that is ahead of Cleveland. Detroit's AL-best 22-13 record has them six spots higher than Cleveland as the third-ranked team on this list. The Guardians being able to close the gap to just 1.5 games is an impressive step in the right direction for a team that stumbled out of the gate.

Even though the Guardians have rebounded, there was some concern about the viability of this team earlier this week. Cleveland's pitching staff experienced plenty of difficulty in their final two games with Boston and their first against Minnesota, as Reuter would also make sure to mention. "The pitching staff has gone from third (3.61) to 18th (4.20) in overall ERA, though this year's numbers are inflated by a 72-hour stretch where they allowed 31 runs in three games", wrote Reuter, highlighting the large volume of runs scored in a relatively brief period of time.

It is very easy to focus on what transpired during that three-game stretch. By doing that, however, the larger and more important aspect of how they have collectively performed is missed entirely. The Guardians won three of four at home against Minnesota and took two of three from the Blue Jays in Toronto. Any week that a team goes 5-2 is a very successful one, and every team in baseball would gladly take that if it were offered to them prior to the games being played. All Cleveland needs to do is keep putting winning weeks together, and they'll end up where they want to go by season's end.