Guardians Entering Toughest Stretch Off Schedule As They Look To Stay In Playoff Hunt
The Cleveland Guardians aren't out of the playoff hunt yet. They're still 4.5 games out of first place in the AL Central after dropping two of three to the Chicago White Sox. However, nothing in MLB is easy and Cleveland's upcoming schedule will be a test for this young team.
Cleveland opens up a four-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. Toronto is playing some of their best baseball as they're 6-4 in their last 10 and are finally getting their starting pitching healthy.
The next AL East team the Guardians have to play after the Blue Jays is the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa had a historic start to the season and is still in a battle to withe Baltimore Orioles to win the division, the toughest in baseball.
After this, they'll take on another budding playoff team in the Cincinnati Reds only to play the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Blue Jays again, and the Minnesota Twins to wrap up the month of August.
If the season ended on Monday, that would be 16 games (18 games if you want to count the Reds who would currently miss out due to a tiebreaker) against current playoff teams. This won't be an easy stretch.
To make matters worse, the Guardians will be severely undermanned during this stretch too. Josh Naylor and Tyler Freeman just went to the injured list, Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie are still a long way off from pitching, and Jose Ramirez will have to serve a suspension at some point too.
We're truly going to get to find out what Gabriel Arias, Brayan Rocchio, and Jose Tena can do during this run and Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams, and Logan Allen are sure to gain some experience on the mound as well.
None of this is to say that Cleveland is completely out of the hunt. The Twins still have some tough series, including one with the Guardians. But every single one of these games is going to be important for this club.
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