It is a must-win series for the Cleveland Guardians in Minnesota

There is nothing like the feeling of October baseball in the beginning of August, but that is what the environment will feel like this weekend in Minnesota. The Cleveland Guardians are headed out on the road to take on the Twins in a four-game series that has quickly become a must-win.

It was just a few days ago that calling this four-game set in Minnesota a must-win for the Guardians would have felt over-reactionary, preposterous, or outright ridiculous. Well, Cleveland dropped the ball in the most recent series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, being swept in three games. The Guardians' once robust lead in the American League Central is now down to 3.5 games over Minnesota, and the division race will take center stage this weekend, beginning with a doubleheader on Friday at Target Field.

This is a series that winning three out of four is the bare minimum requirement for a successful series for Cleveland. While some may question what makes this so much different than the series split with Baltimore a week ago, well, that's simple. The Guardians and Orioles are not in the same division, and the outcome of that series was not going to have as much of an impact on the postseason as thie one. Sure, the Guardians did win the season series against Baltimore and hold the tiebreaker over them if that were to come into play, but this series with the Twins can have a major impact on how the AL Central division race plays out at season's end.

Ideally, the Guardians win three of four or even sweep the Twins. This would give Cleveland a slightly larger margin for error, and that is something they could use at this time. A split is somewhat palatable, as they would maintain their current lead over the Twins in the central, but a loss or another sweep would be simply unacceptable. Cleveland needs to play with a sense of urgency that will result in them recapturing their magic from earlier this season and parlaying that into a nice run into the postseason. Their playoff lives depend on it.