Guardians epic collapse flying under the radar, at least for now

After a hot start to the first half of the season, the Cleveland Guardians had the baseball world talking about them as the surprise story of 2024. Rightfully so, considering a team that came into the season with very low expectations from MLB experts, and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. The Guardians finished the first half with a 58-37 record, which led the American League Central. As we sit today, Cleveland is 4-6 in their last ten games and seems to have lost their momentum.

In addition to the Guardians epic collapse to start the second half of the season, division rival Minnesota Twins are 6-4 in their last ten games, and have been gaining ground of the Guardians' division lead and sit just 2.5 games back. The division winner may come down to their current series.

The Guardians dropped the first two games of the series and got a huge 2-1 win Saturday against the Twins. Tension is beginning to build within the organization and manager Stephen Vogt's frustrations were expressed two nights ago.

Guardians lead in AL Central slipping, and no one's noticing

Much like last season, if Cleveland does fail to find their groove they will indeed be on the hunt again.

They've lost seven straight games with their last win coming on August 2nd at home against the Baltimore Orioles. The Guardians hadn’t lost more than three games in a row all season until this past weekend. The most noticeable issue is they're not hitting the ball. As a team with the current best record in the division, they're 22nd in hits, 17th in batting average, and 19th in on-base percentage. Their pitching stats still rank amongst the top half in the league, but if they want to keep their division lead they've got to find their groove at the plate.

Basically, the Guardians must win the final game in their current series with Minnesota. Cleveland's got a rough schedule ahead, including a back-to-back road series with the Milwaukee Brewers, who lead the National League Central, and road series against the New York Yankees, who are one game back in the AL East to the Orioles.

Weirdly, nobody is talking about this epic collapse, it seems to be flying under the radar, at least for now. The Twins seem to have some fight in them in this final stretch of the season, and if Cleveland doesn't use the much-needed win tonight as a boost of confidence, they'll find themselves on the other end of this division race.