3 things we learned about the Cleveland Guardians this past weekend

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The Cleveland Guardians dropped two of three games to the visiting Chicago White Sox this past weekend. These losses are coming at a very inopportune time for the Guardians.

Cleveland's playoff hopes are hanging on by a thread and the fact that the Minnesota Twins have won four consecutive games is not helping matters either. Anyway, here are three things we learned about the Cleveland Guardians this past weekend.

Do not mess with Jose Ramirez

The usually cool, calm, and collected demeanor of Jose Ramirez was cast aside after Tim Anderson continued to show a complete lack of respect for the game of baseball. Anderson chose to challenge Ramirez to a fight after a head-first slide into second base and it was the Guardians third baseman who came out on top.

Perhaps it would have done Anderson some good to do a little research into the past of Ramirez. While a young Ramirez was not chased home by armed gamblers in the Dominican Republic as a now-deleted social media post once claimed, they were in the stands for the sake of intimidating the very young players to play up to a certain level.

Having that information may have been beneficial to Anderson as maybe he would have thought twice about his decision to square up. If Ramirez was able to make it through this situation, there was zero chance that he was going to feel threatened by Anderson. Because of the series of events that took place, Anderson, in addition to the rest of the league, knows not to mess with Jose Ramirez. Not that they would anyway, as Ramirez is a very well-liked player and Anderson is not.

Still can’t hit enough

The Cleveland Guardians were outhit 29-23 in this past weekend's series. With that in mind, it is no surprise to see them drop two of three games to a clearly inferior White Sox team. It is not just the fact that they were outhit in the series, it is the fact that Chicago was able to register double-digit hits in two of the three games. In comparison, Cleveland has not managed 10 or more hits in a game since July 27th a span of nine games. Coincidentally, this was against the very same White Sox team they just faced.

This is not incredibly surprising considering how much the Guardians have struggled at the plate this season. While Cleveland has managed to get into the middle of the pack in the batting average department, (.251 being tied for 15th win Cincinnati) and hits (15th with 957), they are below average in on-base percentage (.314 is tied for 21st), slugging percentage (.382 is 27th), and OPS. (.696 ranks 25th.

The team may have had a hot stretch or month during the year, but usually, it is the season numbers that win out in the end. A couple of whiffs in free agency in addition to underperforming players and a questionable at-best batting order at times have all contributed to the Guardians being where they are. Expect these numbers to tumble without Josh Naylor and Jose Ramirez in the lineup due to their respective injury status and impending suspension. This will only make winning games much more difficult down the stretch, resulting in the Twins growing their division lead.

Guardians' margin for error continues to shrink

Not that the Guardians had a large margin for error to begin with, but it keeps on getting smaller as the season progresses. Cleveland has not lived up to expectations for the most part this season and that led to the team opting to trade away major league talent at the deadline.

The team has been Triston McKenzie for the majority of the season and an ill-timed injury to Shane Bieber resulted in the Guardians not being able to move him at the deadline. Cleveland has used three rookies (Gavin Williams, Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen) in their starting rotation for more starts than initially anticipated, with a fourth (Xzavion Curry) recently joining the others and Noah Syndergaard.

A recent injury to Josh Naylor with a potential return timline of 3-6 weeks is also not helping matters. The older Naylor has been the most impactful bat for the Guardians this season outside of Jose Ramirez. If Naylor ends up being on the longer end of the spectrum for his return, there is a very real chance that the Guardians end up shutting him down for the remainder of the season should they find themselves out of contention. This logic also applies to Bieber and McKenzie as there would be no reason to have them return if the postseason is truly out of the picture.

There is one more thing, and it has been touched on already in the previous slide. Jose Ramirez's showdown with Tim Anderson. At some point, the league is going to hand out suspensions and if the one given to Ramirez has any substantial length, it could be lights out for the Guardians. Their chances are already incredibly slim with Ramirez, being without him makes them non-existent.