Copyright yardbarker
The Cleveland Guardians woke up on August 26 staring way up at the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central standings. They were two games below .500, 12.5 games back in the division, and six games back in the Wild Card race. A -59 run differential suggested they were actually one of the luckier teams in the league. According to FanGraphs, their chances of making the playoffs were 3.0%. That night, rookie southpaw Parker Messick took the mound for just the second time in his big league career. Armed with a potent combination of offspeed pitches, he twirled seven scoreless against the Rays. The Guardians snapped a six-game losing streak, and Messick collected his first MLB victory. And that was just the beginning. Over the past month, Cleveland has played 29 games in 31 days. That’s more than any other team. Detroit has only played 26 times in that span. Yet, the Guardians have made the most of a difficult slate. Their 22-7 record is easily the best in the sport. From August 26 to September 26, the Guardians went from two games below .500 to 13 games above. They went from staring up at the Tigers (and the Royals) to sitting on top of the AL Central, thanks to the tiebreaker over the Tigers they secured earlier this week. Their playoff odds increased by nearly 3,000 percent. How are they pulling this off? Pitching, pitching, and more pitching. From the rotation to the bullpen, every member of Cleveland’s staff is pulling his weight Guardians pitchers lead the majors in ERA, xERA, FIP, fWAR, and WPA over the past month. If that’s too many acronyms for you, this is all you really need to know: The Guardians have given up fewer runs than any other team. The Guardians have given up less of the stuff that leads to runs – like walks, home runs, general contact, and hard contact – than any other team Guardians pitchers have contributed to more team victories than any other team’s pitchers. The Six-Man Rotation Is Cruising
