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Cleveland Guardians in position to win eighth series of season

By James Mastrucci

Cleveland Guardians v Houston Astros
Cleveland Guardians v Houston Astros / Logan Riely/GettyImages
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Before the season began, there was a general feeling that the Cleveland Guardians would again be an underwhelming team that would struggle to score runs and rack up wins. The good news here is that there is a reason why the games are played, as the Guardians have proved most projections and predictions to be completely off base thus far.

Winners of seven of their first nine series to start the season, the Cleveland Guardians are now in position to win their eighth, having split their first two games in Houston with the Astros. Extra innings were needed in the first two contests, as the first game went to the Astros and the second to the Guardians. This puts Cleveland in a spot where they could very realistically come away with a win on Thursday night, which would have them 11 games over .500, and in firm control of the American League Central division. 

Even if things do not go their way in the series finale, winning seven of 10 series to being the year is nothing to scoff at. The Guardians would still have a comfortable margin between wins and losses while still having one of the highest win totals in all of baseball. This is significantly better than how most fans and analysts projected the early season schedule to go for the Guardians. But that has not stopped those who do not believe in the team, as they erroneously a couple of opponents that Cleveland dominated to begin the season (Oakland, anyone?). 

Is this team perfect? No. Are there notable areas that need to be addressed and improved upon? Absolutely. But this does not mean that their record early in the season should be discounted for any reason. It takes a certain caliber of team (a good one) to win seven of nine series, possibly even eight of 10, to begin the year. If you are still one of the few still questioning the talent level of this Guardians team, there is no time like the present to end that behavior and enjoy what appears to be a very fun season on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.