Chicago White Sox: The Cleveland Guardians continue to impress

The Chicago White Sox didn’t win the division in 2022. Instead, they were defeated by the Clevland Guardians throughout the year which allowed them to claim the American League Central title. The Guardians were certainly better than the White Sox and deserved to win the division.

However, all season long, we only heard about how the AL Central winner would be too weak to do any damage in the playoffs. In an odd way, it is nice to see the Guardians prove that narrative to be wrong.

They are going to the American League Division Series and vaunted the AL East went 0-4 on the first playoff weekend. Of course, The Toronto Blue Jays were stunned by the Seattle Mariners in a 2-0 sweep but those Guardians swept the Tampa Bay Rays.

Shane McClanahan and Tyler Glasnow are two of the best pitchers in the American League and the Guardians found a way to beat them both. They had Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie on the mound so it isn’t like they are weak in that department either.

Both teams also have very good bullpens as well. It should surprise nobody that only four runs were scored in the entire two-game series. The Guardians took the first game 2-1 which was impressive in its own right.

In the second game, they won 1-0. The catch is that it was a 15-inning baseball game. That means that the team managed to allow just one run in 24 innings. This team is very good at pitching and that helps them win a lot f baseball games.

The Chicago White Sox are well aware of how good the Cleveland Guardians are.

Cleveland might need to wake the bats up a little bit more as three runs probably won’t cut it against their next opponent. They have the New York Yankees waiting for them in the Division Series. It is sure to be an amazing series between two very good teams.

In that final game, the Guardians took away some momentum as they walked it off in the 15th thanks to an Oscar Gonzalez home run. If they can recreate some of that magic against New York, they might be able to accomplish something huge.

We have already seen a lot of upsets in the playoffs so far and the Guardians believe in themselves as much as any team left. They took the division from the White Sox and then continued to win over the weekend. We will see what they can do this week.