The Guardians Come To Baltimore With A Chance To Finish Off The Orioles This Week

Believe it or not, Craig Albernaz didn’t bring “Guards Ball,” the scrappy style of play the Guardians employ, to Baltimore from Cleveland.

As much as he was around it as an assistant there, it hasn’t carried over to the team he manages. Not even a little. Not scoring one run in three games over the weekend and not in terms of fielding, or hitting starting pitching or putting together a lineup that isn't weak.

And for all of their faults, and Cleveland still can’t really hit the baseball and is a very inconsistent team and couldn’t even really take advantage of playing in the weak AL Central, the Guardians are still better than the Orioles, they continue to churn out impact arms and they’ve been scrapping and clawing for comeback wins lately.

They have an opportunity, up four games on the Orioles with time running out, to effectively send their old buddy Albernaz into his first offseason a little early with Baltimore's Wild Card hopes looking more remote by the day. There isn’t much reason to fancy the Orioles in this series, coming off five straight losses and unable to do much against winning teams. And this just might be where the story ends for the 2026 O’s.

Here’s what you need to know before this series begins:

Are The Guardians Any Good?

Not really. They have allowed 14 more runs than they have scored, which says a lot more about their lineup than anything else. They are five-games above .500 on the road, they just had a wild series against the Tigers where they showed a lot of gumption and they do one thing particularly well – they beat crap teams (like they just beat the Tigers).

The Guardians are a robust 51-35 against sub-.500 teams. And as we know, the Orioles most definitely qualify. And they do it with pitching; Cleveland is tied for last in MLB, producing just 4.0 runs per game.

How Bad Is The Lineup?

Well, they aren’t getting shutout in consecutive games all over the place, but they have big issues. No one has hit even 15 homers for them this season. Only one hitter who sees regular action even has a .710 OPS, and that’s rookie Chase DeLauter. But none of this is lost on them.

They have five players with at least 10 steals, they will do whatever they can to put pressure on a defense and try to generate runs and at least they seem to understand their limitations. Would think we get a decent amount of Carlos Narvaez behind the plate in this series but with Trevor Rogers pitching on Monday that’s generally rookie Samuel Basallo behind the plate.

Which Arms Are They Facing?

Lefty Joe Cantillo has been wild lately – he walked seven against the Angels and four against the Rockies before that. The O’s knocked him around in April when he couldn’t complete five innings and walked three and hit a batter. The Orioles have been far more bad than good against lefties and if they have a clue – and the guys running this team don’t – they will get Coby Mayo and Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the top third of this lineup, certainly the top four. Cantillo doesn’t have the most extreme splits, but the O's should go Blaze Alexander, Pete Alonso (even in a slump), Mayo and CES up top.

Tanner Bibee goes Tuesday and he’s the Guardians version of Shane Baz – league average starter who just can’t get run support and all he does is lose. Bibee is 5-15 and the Guardians are 8-21 in his starts. In his last 11 starts he’s allowed nine homers with a 4.64 ERA. Alas, it won’t be Baz (5-15/7-21), and he might he in trouble because …

Foster Griffin closes the series for Cleveland he was an amazing find by the Nationals and he’s been solid but not special for Cleveland. But all he does is win. His teams are 21-7 in this starters and Griffin is 15-4, himself.

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