Big test awaits the Guardians in their series with Orioles

The Cleveland Guardians are set to play host to the visiting Baltimore Orioles in a four-game series that is sure to test the might of both teams squaring off. This is a matchup of the top two teams in the American League, and two of the top three teams in all of baseball, with Cleveland holding the top spot and Baltimore being third.

When it comes to marquee matchups, this series between the Guardians and Orioles is clearly one of them. The trade deadline is over, and both teams are poised to make the push for the postseason and get ready for October. This is a series destined to have a playoff feel to it, even though it is taking place during the first week of August.

Both teams know that there is a good chance they will meet in the postseason, considering how both ballclubs have performed up to this point and the expected future success that is very much on the table. They know that if either one of them is going to gain an advantage tiebreaker-wise, they will need to be at their best for their final regular season series. The Guardians took two out of three in Baltimore back in June, so they will only need to split this four-game set with Baltimore to hold a tiebreaker if that becomes necessary later in the year.

While the wins and losses in this upcoming series will matter, the area that may be a little more important would be the information either team acquires about their opponent. How they decide to approach pitching matchups, who their pinch hitters or runners are, defensive replacements, and how they will use their arms in the bullpen. This is very much a fact-finding series as much as it is a competitive one.

Expect how this series plays out to have major ramifications on how both ballclubs approach the remainder of the regular season and the upcoming postseason. There is no better test for a team ready for a playoff run than facing off with one of the other teams holding one of the best records, as it will provide a guide of how they will be approached by other teams in the current weeks. Both teams are ready to go head-to-head in a matchup that should provide plenty of fireworks.