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Stephen Vogt Gets Honest About Guardians Position In Playoff Picture
Aug 19, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt in the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Stephen Vogt Gets Honest About Guardians Position In Playoff Picture

Originally posted on Cleveland Guardians on SI
By Tommy Wild  |  Last updated Aug 21, 2025 8:00 AM ET

By their own accord, the Cleveland Guardians got themselves back into the American League Playoff picture with six straight series victories. However, the team has only one win in their last six contests, and they’re making their path to the postseason much more difficult for themselves.

After Cleveland’s series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Kansas City Royals have jumped them in the standings, with the Guardians now 3.0 games out of a wild-card spot.

That said, Stephen Vogt made it extremely clear after Wednesday’s loss that he isn’t looking at the st andings or leaderboards; he’s entirely focused on his team. 

“I don’t look at the scoreboard for anybody else. I just know that we need to keep winning games, explained Cleveland’s skipper.

”We need to get back on track. This has been a tough two series for us, and games we should have won, and we didn’t, and we need to get better offensively. We need to continue to get better defensively, and we need to continue to pitch better. We control our own destiny; we just need to keep winning games.”

Vogt is exactly right, the Guardians need to be focused on themselves, not what other teams are doing around them. Cleveland has some clear areas it needs to improve upon if it still hopes to be playing October baseball this year. 

One area Vogt believes the team must get better at is their quality of at-bats and overall production at the plate. Over the last week, the Guardians had a team slash line of .203/.277/.293 with an OPS of .570. Those aren’t the stats of a team fighting for a playoff spot. 

However, Vogt does say one thing that is true here: the Guardians do control their own destiny.

The teams currently ahead of Cleveland in the wild-card standings are the Royals, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees. The Guardians still have series left against each team except the Yankees, but Cleveland currently holds the tiebreaker over New York.

As their manager emphasizes, the Guardians must start playing better. Even though they’ve fallen in the standings over the last week, they still have a path to getting back to the playoffs. 

Read More Cleveland Guardians Coverage


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

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