Predicting Guardians' road to holding off Orioles, Blue Jays in AL Wild Card standings

On Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Guardians closed out their series against the Kansas City Royals with an 11-1 win that pushed them to a game over .500. 

Even if the first two games of the Royals had plenty of frustrating moments, Sunday’s win meant the Guardians finished August with a 13-13 record while also gaining a game on the teams they’re chasing down in the American League postseason race. 

The Guardians may not be in the position they want to be in thanks to their mid-summer swoon, but they’re still entering September with control of their postseason destiny. There are worse spots to be in. 

The Guardians' September schedule is a blessing in disguise

Sunday’s win means the Guardians have a one game lead on the Orioles for the American League’s final Wild Card spot along with having a 1 1/2 game lead on the Blue Jays and a two game lead over the Rangers. 

Although the Orioles are also having a disappointing season by their standards, they’ve climbed back into the postseason picture thanks to a 28-21record since the start of July. Should we have expected anything less from a team run by Stephen Vogt’s right-hand man? 

The same thing can be said for the Blue Jays, who have scuffled for most of the season while navigating a variety of injuries and underperformance. But they’ve played better as of late and have been able to push their way ahead in the American League’s depressed postseason standings. 

But all that doesn’t change the fact they’re chasing down the Guardians. In fact, the Guardians are going to get a chance to knock one team out of the running this week when they take on the Blue Jays for a three-game series at Progressive Field. 

Even though we’re at a point in the season where every game is a “must-win” the Guardians need to take at least two out of three against the Blue Jays. 

Doing so would not only help the Guardians hold them off in the standings, but would also guarantee they’d have the same head-to-head record should a tiebreaker be needed. 

They’re going to get another chance to deliver a postseason knockout two series later when they travel to Baltimore to take on the Orioles in a three-game series at Camden Yards. 

Cleveland just needs to win one game in that series to take the head-to-head tiebreaker, but they’re going to take more than one game if they want to hold the Orioles off for that Wild Card spot. 

From there, the Guardians close the season with series against the Twins, White Sox, Athletics, Red Sox and Royals — a good mix of teams playing out the string and teams fighting for their postseason lives. 

That Red Sox series could end up being one of the more interesting series of the year since they’re the team the Guardians are chasing for the second Wild Card spot (they have a four-game lead over Cleveland for the spot). 

That said, the third Wild Card spot may be the preferable path for the Guardians since that means they’d take on the American League West winner before taking on the White Sox. That’s as good of a postseason path as you can have. 

The best way the Guardians could make that a moot point is by taking the division crown, and they have a great avenue to make that happen thanks to that September series against the Sox. 

But even if they don’t end up winning the division title, their September schedule gives them a great chance to lock down the American League’s final Wild Card spot. 

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