Guardians need their offense to wake up after struggling this past weekend

Following Friday night's 7-0 victory over the San Diego Padres, it appeared that the Cleveland Guardians were going to hit the ground running following the conclusion of the All-Star Break. Unfortunately, that did not come to fruition as they struggled to do much of anything offensively over the rest of the weekend.

The Guardians were kept in check by the Padres in the final two games against San Diego, being limited to just one run on three hits in those contests. This included San Diego's Michael King carrying a no-hitter into the 7th inning before Angel Martinez registered Cleveland's first hit of the game. Martinez would end up coming around to score for the Guardians' only run over the final two games with the Padres. While the run late in Sunday's matchup did put Cleveland in position to potentially tie the game, they were unable to manage another hit in the contest, resulting in a disappointing one-run loss.

Scratching across a single run over 18 innings is simply an unacceptable performance by the Guardians. This is a team that has proven to be significantly better than their performance over the final two games with San Diego. There is a reason why Cleveland is currently in first place in the American League Central division and held the top spot in the American League before this weekend's events. The Guardians have shown they are a good offensive team that is certainly capable of more than one run on three hits over two games.

While it may be tempting to dwell on their lackluster performance against the Padres, the Guardians cannot afford to do that. Cleveland is set to play host to the Detroit Tigers for a four-game set beginning on Monday. The Guardians and Tigers have split their first six matchups this season, as they have been unable to defeat a clearly inferior opponent. Cleveland must find a way for their offense to get back on track, win three of four against Detroit, and push the Tigers closer toward their inevitable trade deadline firesale.

If they are unable to accomplish this task, it would not necessarily put the Guardians into full-blown panic mode, but it would increase the urgency at which they need to address their own needs at the deadline. And while they do need to be active in adding proven talent, having their current players play up to the level they are capable of rather than struggling will force the front office to be aggressive at the deadline rather than taking the half-in half-out approach that has become far too common over the past few seasons, a prospect that nobody wants to see come to fruition given their success up to this point.