CLEVELAND -- On the heels of a 10-game losing streak, the Guardians’ 6-1 run into the All-Star break helped reinspire confidence that they could make a push for a playoff spot in the second half, especially when factoring in what lies ahead on their schedule.
With the July 31 Trade Deadline looming, it’s no secret Cleveland has reached a critical point in its 2025 season. It’s up to the Guardians to capture and build upon that momentum of a strong finish to the first half.
“This is a period of high significance and importance for the team,” general manager Mike Chernoff said Friday afternoon. “We have to see where we come out of the break”
So far, so good. The Guardians beat the A’s, 8-6, in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night at Progressive Field. Cleveland (47-49) has now won seven of eight since its 10-game skid that spanned June 26-July 6.
The Guardians entered the break in a bit of a gray area as far as the Deadline goes, not clearly falling into the buyer or seller lane. Before their series opener in Houston last week, things were trending towards the latter.
But the Guardians swept the Astros in Houston, and then they took three of four from the White Sox in Chicago as well. In the second half, Cleveland has the easiest strength of schedule in the Majors (.467, entering Friday), and the club will end the month of July with 13 games against four teams under .500 (A’s, Orioles, Royals and Rockies).
It’s not entirely black and white, though.
“It’s been an emotional two and a half weeks with the ups and downs of our season,” Chernoff said. “I think we're gonna have to take it up to the last minute [before the Deadline] and see where we are. It's our job to prepare on all sides of this. I know every single opportunity we have to improve our team -- or on the flip side, to take advantage of a moment if we are not in contention for a spot -- [we will].”
The Guardians’ schedule ahead offers an opportunity to stack up wins, and they picked up where they left off before the break on Friday. They scored eight runs on nine hits -- seven of which went for extra bases -- against the A’s.
Johnathan Rodríguez and David Fry each hit a home run off starter JP Sears, José Ramírez finished 2-for-3 with a triple and a double, and Brayan Rocchio contributed a pair of doubles out of the No. 9 spot.
Slade Cecconi was vying for his first career complete game, but he settled for a career-high 8 1/3 innings. He was charged with six runs on eight hits (including a pair of homers) on 107 pitches (74 strikes).
“Obviously, we've played better -- that helps,” said Fry of the Guardians’ hot stretch. “But in the clubhouse, I don't think anything's changed. We knew this run was coming; it’s just part of 162.
“You have ups and downs, and we have full belief in who we’ve got in here, and hopefully we keep it rolling.”
The Guardians scored 15 runs during their 10-game skid. They scored 41 runs over their seven-game road trip last week (5.86 per game).
“I felt like we rode the road trip offense right into tonight,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “Obviously you're not always looking for eight runs. That'd be great. It would be great to score eight runs every night. But to me, it was the way we grinded out at-bats.
“We made Sears come into the zone. We didn't chase him. We stuck to our plan. We had a really good plan going into it, and we jumped on him early. Really big credit to our guys.”
Like any team, the Guardians will consider the short term with the future at the Deadline. What the American League postseason picture looks like in two weeks also cannot be discounted.
After Friday’s win against the A’s, the Guardians stand 4 1/2 games back of the Mariners (52-45) for the final AL Wild Card spot -- one of six teams within five games of Seattle.
But with 66 games remaining, there is time to make a run.
“I'm hopeful we can pull ourselves back into, [or] close to, contention,” Chernoff said. “There are a lot of teams that are in the mix right now in the AL. But I think our team is good enough to contend. So the question really just comes down to how we do over the next couple of weeks and the assessment that we make as we head into the Deadline.”