Guardians make bold statement with series win over Phillies

The Cleveland Guardians came into this weekend's series with the Phillies in Philadelphia as the underdogs. Most expected the Phillies to easily win this series, but the Guardians had other ideas. Cleveland was able to take the first and third games against Philadelphia to secure a very impressive series win over the team owning baseball's best record, making quite the statement along the way.

Winning a road series is tough to begin with, and when it is against a team as talented as the Phillies, who have an MLB-leading 65 wins on the year, one can't help but take notice. Being able to hand the best in baseball record-wise a series loss just shows how good this Guardians team is, even with the few notable flaws they currently have that will hopefully be addressed before Tuesday's deadline. Cleveland is showing they are a force to be reckoned with and will be able to go toe-to-toe with anyone, no matter the venue.

Sure, Saturday's matchup was far from competitive, losing 8-0 in blowout fashion, but those games will happen occasionally. It is just part of playing a full 162-game season. This unpleasant affair can be placed as part of the 25% of games that every team is guaranteed to lose, with another 25% being guaranteed wins and the other 50% being up for grabs.

The more important aspect of this weekend's series are the other two contests. Not just because the Guardians won, as nice as that was, but because it is more similar to a postseason game than Saturday's uncompetitive contest. Competitive games that necessitate the need for a closer to come in and shut the door in the bottom of the 9th are the best warmups a playoff-bound team can have in the regular season. Knowing that the game is still within reach for the home team and proper all-around execution is going to be required in order to win can be daunting, but Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase was more than up to the task, recording two saves on the weekend in those situations.

One of the more impressive aspects of their performance this weekend is that while they were taking two out of three from the Phillies, they were doing so without the services of Josh Naylor. Naylor was given this series off in order to rest and allow any bumps or bruises to adequately heal. Cleveland has needed other bats to step up for quite some time, and they were able to do exactly that this weekend in Philadelphia. Hopefully, this will be the catalyst that wakes the offense up from the lull they have been stuck in since before the All-Star Break. If that is the case and this series win against the Phillies propels them to continue playing like this, there is no telling how far this team can go.