CLEVELAND — The Guardians have played well enough to remain firmly in the race for the final wild card spot in the American League playoff picture. But to a degree, they’re spinning their tires and running out of time to close the gap.
The Guardians took three of four games in a crucial series with the Kansas City Royals, who have also been clinging to any glimmer of hope to make the postseason. Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo delivered outstanding pitching performances, and C.J. Kayfus delivered the biggest home run for the Guardians this season to date.
In the process, the Guardians improved to 75-71 as of the conclusion of the series and moved ahead of the Royals.
But entering Sept. 12, the Guardians remained 3.5 games back of the final playoff spot, now held by the Houston Astros after the Seattle Mariners won in comeback fashion and overtook them for the American League West lead. Cleveland has been hovering around that deficit for several days.
It’s been enough to remain within striking distance, but it has still left with the Guardians being long shots to secure the sixth and final playoff spot.
AL wild card standings, schedule; Astros lead Rangers, Guardians
Sixteen games remain. The Guardians have a chance to make up some ground over the weekend with a series against the last-place Chicago White Sox. They’ll then travel to Detroit for three games before playing a four-game series against the recently-depleted Minnesota Twins.
The schedule, at least leading up to the final week of the regular season, has the chance to be beneficial for Cleveland.
FanGraphs’ projections see the Guardians needing to get to around 87 wins to really challenge for the postseason, which would mean at least a 12-4 record over the final 16 games.
It leaves Cleveland with little room for error, and a clock that is ticking.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.record-courier.com ’
