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The Cleveland Guardians continue to be one of the hottest teams in the American League and MLB. Their fresh off their sixth consecutive series win, and are looking to make it seven in a row as the Atlanta Braves come to town.
If the Guardians want to ensure a series win over their NL East foe, these are three areas the team should focus on.
Guardians Must Be Aggressive In Stealing Bases
The Guardians have an opportunity to expose a major weakness in Atlanta’s defense this series: base stealing.
The Braves’ catching trio of Drake Baldwin, Sandy Leon, and Sean Murphy has only caught 14 runners stealing this season (18 percent), which is the third-worst in MLB this season. Since July 1, Atlanta has only thrown out one runner.
On the other hand, the Guardians have been one of MLB’s best base-stealing teams, ranking 10th in MLB with 95 stolen bases this season.
The second a Cleveland hitter gets on base, they should immediately be thinking about how they can get on second base. More importantly, the Guardians’ batters should be willing to take a pitch or two at the beginning of an at-bat to give runners an opportunity to get into scoring position.
Guardians Can't Let Let Matt Olson Or Marcell Ozuna Beat Them
The Braves entered the 2025 season with World Series aspirations, but after an incredibly slow start, Atlanta quickly fell out of playoff contention.
As a team, the Braves have a .710 OPS, which ranks in the second half of MLB. However, Atlanta still has some former All-Star sluggers on their team, and the Guardians can’t let them be the reason the Braves win the series.
Matt Olson has recorded a .814 OPS and hit 19 home runs so far this year, which is a down season for his standards.
The power-hitting first baseman also has historically hit well at Progressive Field. In 58 plate appearances at Cleveland’s home ballpark, Olson has posted a .319/.448/.574 slash line, including three home runs.
That leads to Marcell Ozuna, who has arguably been Atlanta’s best hitter this season. He leads the team with 20 home runs and is second in OPS with a .796, only trailing Olson.
If the Guardians can limit the production from this duo, they’ll set themselves up in a good spot to win the series.
Cleveland’s Starters Must Give The Team Length
The Guardians' pitching staff has been heavily taxed this season, especially in their recent series win against the Miami Marlins.
Cleveland’s starters only covered 13.2 of the 27 innings over the last three games. Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Erick Sabrowski, and Nic Enright all pitched in two of those contests.
Joey Cantillo will take the mound in the series opener, Slade Cecconi is scheduled to go in game two, and Logan Allen will start on Sunday.
This trio must give the Guardians length, or Cleveland will be relying on an overly tired bullpen to close out games, which is never a good recipe for success.
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