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Takeaways From Cleveland Guardians' Series Loss To The Rangers
Aug 23, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; The Cleveland Guardians players look down from the team dugout during the game against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Takeaways From Cleveland Guardians' Series Loss To The Rangers

Originally posted on Cleveland Guardians on SI
By Tommy Wild  |  Last updated Aug 24, 2025 9:30 PM ET

The Cleveland Guardians needed to, at a minimum, win four of their six games to stay in the playoff hunt. However, they dropped their series in Arizona and were swept by the Texas Rangers over the week, leaving their postseason hopes in their air. 

Here are three takeaways from their rough series loss for the Guardians. 

Cleveland’s Bats Have Disappeared

The lack of offense and struggling with runners in scoring position is what plagued the Guardians in their series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Unfortunately, those struggles traveled with them to Texas. 

Cleveland only scored three runs during their three-game set against the Rangers, with all of those runs coming during the series opener on Friday night. Not only that, but the Guardians simply couldn’t get any offense rolling; they only have 15 hits as a team over the 21 innings.  

Even if the Rangers didn’t score 24 runs as a team over the three games, this series would’ve been hard for the Guardians to win with how much the bats have struggled over the last week.

Cleveland’s Rotation Showing Its Cracks

Slade Cecconi gave the Guardians a quality start during the series finale, which was a nice bounce-back after allowing 13 total runs in his previous two starts.

However, Cleveland’s next starters in the series, Logan Allen and Gavin Williams, each faced adversity.

Allen was hit hard, giving up nine earned runs on eight hits, which is the most damage he’s allowed in a start all year. 

Williams wasn’t necessarily bad in the series finale, but some bad habits started to creep in. The right-hander just couldn’t put away batters and struggled with his command, quickly raising his pitch count. Williams only lasted 3.1 innings until Stephen Vogt turned to the bullpen. 

Allen has been Cleveland’s most consistent starter this season, and Williams has risen to the title as the team’s ace. Both of their struggles show that the cracks in the Guardians’ rotation could be starting to show this late in the season. 

Is Cade Smith Ready To Be The Guardians’ Closer?

The Guardians had a golden opportunity to win the series opener, taking a one-run lead into the ninth inning. However, Cade Smith gave up two runs in just seven pitches, allowing Texas to walk off with Friday’s game.

This was the second time in the matter of two games that Cade blew a save, sparking the question: Is the right-hander ready to be Cleveland’s closer?

Smith is used to pitching in high-leverage situations, and he’s been successful as the Guardians’ ninth-inning pitcher in the past. 

These two losses come at an unfortunate time, considering their effect on the season, but they don’t mean the Guardians need to move Cade out of the role or that they can’t rely on him to be the closer in the future.

Read More Cleveland Guardians Coverage


This article first appeared on Cleveland Guardians on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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