The Cleveland Guardians’ path to the postseason is right in front of them

What a difference a series makes. 

On Monday, the Cleveland Guardians headed into their series against the Houston Astros in the midst of a rancid 10-game losing streak that had everyone in Cleveland wishing it was football season. 

On Wednesday, they left Daikin Park riding high off a three-game winning streak that has everyone in Cleveland ready to believe again. 

And it gets a little easier to believe once you take a look at Cleveland’s upcoming schedule.

The Cleveland Guardians’ path to the postseason is right in front of them

After sweeping the American League West-leading  Astros, the Guardians now sit at 43-48 as they head into a four-game series against the lowly Chicago White Sox.

It’ll mark the first time the Guardians will play against the White Sox since they swept them at Progressive Field in April in a series highlighted by Nolan Jones’ walk-off walk in the home opener.

If the Guardians can sweep Chicago, they’ll enter the All-Star Break just one game below .500. Take three out of four and you're still just two games below.

Not great in the grand scheme of things, but a lot better than a week ago when they were eight games under .500 and couldn’t score a run if their collective lives depended on it. 

And things get even better once you pull the lens out further. Here’s how their schedule looks out of the break with each team’s record: 

• Three games at home against the Athletics (38-56) 
• Four games at home against the Orioles (40-50)
• Three games at the Royals (46-48) 
• Three games against the Rockies (21-72)
• Three games at home against the Twins (45-47) 

If you include the White Sox series, Cleveland’s next 20 games are against teams that enter play on Thursday with a record under .500. 

They also have big series against the Twins and Royals, two teams that have leapfrogged them in the standings in the last week:

It remains to be seen how that schedule will impact their thinking at the trade deadline, if at all. The deadline would be after their three-game series against the Rockies, who are on pace to be the worst team in MLB. 

Things are also looking up because of how the Guardians have been playing. Slade Cecconi is beginning to look more and more like a frontline starter after shutting down Houston’s lineup on Wednesday. Bryan Rocchio came to life early in the series.

Ángel Martínez homered in two straight games. José Ramírez has homered in three straight. Even Paul Sewald got into the action with a big save on Wednesday.

Cleveland’s lineup has finally found its groove, and could be even better after the break now that Ramírez is going to sit out of the All-Star Game to focus on injury recovery. He didn’t look like himself in the aftermath of being hit by a pitch from Kevin Gausman, but he seemed to quell all those doubts with his strong series in Houston. 

There’s still room for the Guardians to improve, but they spent their three-day stay in Houston showing how good they can be. If they can carry that over into their 20 games, then things could look a lot better at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.