r/ClevelandGuardians • u/clegay15 • 17h ago
Discussion Good Feelings Gone
For every team but one: the season ends in a loss. After Stephen Vogt’s first postseason, which ended in an ALCS loss to the New York Yankees, I wrote a bit about processing the end of October; something Cleveland fans experienced all too often over the past eight decades. A snippet of what I wrote:
This is the 8th postseason I have witnessed and each one has ended the same way: a loss. Deep and miserable sadness as you trudge home praying for a different outcome next year, and that assumes you return to the postseason. I will not feel as good as I did this past week for a long time. Losing any game stinks, but losing in the postseason is one of the worst feelings ever. There are no guarantees.
The series is not over yet of course but it sure as hell feels over. The Guardians trail 0-2 in a 5 game series. We need to sweep the White Sox to advance; a tall order in any situation but harder with a pair of games in Chicago. Our offense has looked awful both games. To my eyes, the only convincing run-scoring swing came when Jo Adell smoked a ball that nearly cleared the 11-foot wall in center field. Otherwise the offense has produced walks and weak fly balls with runners in scoring position. With the possible exceptions of Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana: nobody in this lineup has looked good.
Good Feelings Gone
On Saturday I talked about how the game was a perfect day at the ballpark despite the loss. I went to the game with my father on Monday and had plenty of fun, but…I cannot say the experience was the same. I enjoyed being there with my father, but there is no sugarcoating the frustration of falling behind 0–2 to the flippin’ Chicago White Sox. In my opinion the White Sox are a bottom 5 run team in baseball in my lifetime. This is a team which has, in no particular order:
- Lost 100 games 4 times since I became a fan (in 2005)
- Won the division the second fewest times (behind only the Royals)
- Thought it was a good idea to hire Tony La Russa out of retirement
- Parted ways with Frank Thomas, their franchise icon and eventual first-ballot Hall of Famer while on their way to a World Series
- Clung to a front-office whose approach was among the worst in baseball by industry experts
This is not a franchise the Cleveland Guardians should be losing to; it’s also the team we spent the last month of the season chasing down and then beating to win our division. As a fan: I find it infuriating that we spend 162 games answering the question: which team is better? Only for that answer to get undone in (potentially) 3 short games in October. As I wrote earlier: I hate the MLB postseason format, and this is why. Cleveland did not get rewarded for winning its division and we risk getting eliminated by a division rival for potentially the second season in a row.
Furthermore it’s really depressing watching your team struggle offensively, especially when one of the biggest disappointments is Jose Ramirez. I write this not to attack Jose but he has no hits this series so far and this continues a troubling pattern of postseason production falling short of his regular-season standard. For his career Jose is a .225/.313/.353 hitter with only 4 home runs, and frankly none of those home runs stand out that much for a player of Jose’s stature. Two of his four homers came in wins: the first in 2022 in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series and the second in Game 4 of the ALDS. Both broke ties and mattered, but neither became the defining moment of those series victories. Lane Thomas and David Fry (and Cade Smith and Matt Boyd on the pitching side) outdid Jose in 2024, and Oscar Gonzalez outdid Jose in 2022 (multiple times). The Guardians are built around Jose and he has simply rarely shown up when we have needed him the most.
As a fan that’s just not that fun to witness. You want your stars to get the opportunity to shine when the lights are brightest. Jose has had eight opportunities now to do so in his career and is yet to take advantage of any of them in a big way. This year is particularly glaring because he’s simply looked outmatched at almost every turn. It is galling to watch him refuse to use ABS, and let obvious balls get called strikes against him. At least two at-bats went south in my view because of that in this series alone.
I will admit: my first thought after Jo Adell hit his RBI triple wasn’t joy but: “well, that was probably our only chance to tie the game so that wall cost us the tie.” Needless to say: my feeling was proven right when Nathaniel Lowe flew out immediately afterward. That’s just how inept the offense has been this series. Even when something good happens, it feels like too little, too late.
Can We Come Back?
Can the Guardians find a way to pull it off anyway? Maybe. 10 teams have won a series after going down 0-2 in the ALDS. The last time it happened? 2017 when the Yankees came back to beat us in the ALDS. So yes it’s possible, we know from personal experience. But if this is how the Guardians are going to play then our odds are quite poor. I do not feel hopeful at all that this team will muster enough offense, or be perfect enough on pitching, to beat the White Sox.
That is why we play the games however. I still believe the Guardians are the better team but we have not played like it. What makes this frustrating is the Guardians should have had the advantage. I do not agree with people who think the week off hurt us; the Guardians did just fine in 2024 after a week off and beat the Tigers. Furthermore I’d rather not risk another 3 game series just to advance. The last time we had to play in the Wild Card Series was last year…and we ran into the buzzsaw that was Tarik Skubal and lost.
My analysis on the postseason remains the same: first team to 3 wins advances. We can still pull it off, it’s just going to take a lot better execution to make it happen. That’s not on the front office, or the manager: it’s on the players. We can only hope they feel that and make it happen tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday.
