Rangers Give Guardians A Demonstration Of An Elite Offense
For the first time in 2023, the Cleveland Guardians own a four-game losing streak.
This dates back to before the All-Star break when they fell to the Kansas City Royals. But the real damage came in the first series post-break when the Texas Rangers swept the Guardians in three games.
There are a lot of takeaways from this series. Some may point to the bullpen implosions in games one and three. But at the end of the day, the Rangers have an elite offense that not many pitching staffs can handle and Cleveland's bats have been struggling all season.
Cleveland had opportunities all series long and in some cases took advantage of them. For example, Bo Naylor and Josh Naylor each went deep in the same inning in game one. Another was Steven Kwan leading off the finale with a home run.
However, whenever the Guardians appeared to have the Rangers on the ropes, Texas hit back and didn't stop.
The Rangers scored 12 unanswered runs following the Naylors' homer and Marcus Semien followed Kwan's lead-off homer with a leadoff solo shot of his own.
Taking advantage of their opportunities is something that the Rangers often do and the Guardians got a first-hand look at it over the weekend. They're batting .301 and slugging .494 with runners in scoring position. Cleveland on the other hand is hitting just .248 in the same situation.
Texas' offense simply doesn't have any holes. Leody Taveras, who hit ninth in their lineup in all three games, is currently hitting.294, has 10 home runs, and an OPS 0f .812.
Let's be honest, he'd probably be hitting leadoff or in the two-hole if he was on the Guardians.
Cleveland's calling card has always been its pitching and positive offense on top of that feels like a premium. But now the starting rotation is shambles and the bullpen isn't meeting their expectations which is further exposing Cleveland's flaws on offense.
The Guardians are still in a position to win the AL Central, but they'll need to make additions on offense if Cleveland wants to make a World Series run.
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