The Guardians have stacked up five straight wins, and the numbers behind the surge tell the story of a club finding production in a lot of different places. Gavin Williams is piling up strikeouts, Steven Kwan is living on base, the bullpen is getting a lift from Erik Sabrowski, and the newcomers have added some punch. There’s also the oddity of Austin Hedges, who is suddenly doing damage at the plate, and the minor-league blast furnace that is Ralphy Velazquez.
Williams is the one with the clearest path to a franchise-level benchmark. He’s already crossed 200 strikeouts after freezing San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames with a full-count curveball last week, a pitch that followed Adames’ homer off him the inning before.
That put Williams in rare Cleveland company: he became the eighth Cleveland pitcher in the last 50 seasons to reach 200 strikeouts, joining Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Bartolo Colon among others who have done it multiple times. The 250-strikeout club is even tighter.
In franchise history, dating to 1901, only six pitchers have reached it: Shane Bieber, Corey Kluber, Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Herb Score and Bob Feller. Williams needs 49 more strikeouts to join them, and with at least six starts left, maybe seven, that’s suddenly in play.
He’s had double-digit strikeouts in six of his last eight outings.
At the top of the order, Kwan has turned into a machine for multi-hit games. He has 15 of them in his last 34 games, matching the total he had in his first 88 games. Since the start of July, he’s carried the best on-base percentage in the league, and Chase DeLauter has chipped in with seven multihit games over the last three weeks, giving Cleveland a useful one-two punch.
José Ramírez, meanwhile, is still waiting for the power to come back. He last went deep in Texas on June 6, and a week later he broke the hamate bone in his left wrist.
Since coming off the injured list, he has gone 26 games without much thump, hitting .226/.321/.247. Just two of his 21 hits have gone for extra bases.
His chase for the 300-homer, 300-stolen-base club has stalled at 295 homers, though he’s already at 316 steals.
The bullpen has a bright spot in Sabrowski, whose strikeout rate has been elite. Among relievers with at least 30 innings, his 14.84 strikeouts per nine innings ranks second behind Mason Miller’s 16.4 for the San Diego Padres.
The walks have been the issue - his walk rate is sixth-highest in the league - but August has gone cleanly. He hasn’t issued a walk in seven of his eight appearances this month and hasn’t allowed a run.
Offensively, the Guardians are up to 124 home runs, a total that trails only one team. Their August OPS sits at .718, which ranks 13th in the league, and the month-by-month line shows the offense has had its peaks and valleys: .685 in March/April, .699 in May, .628 in June, .690 in July and .718 in August.
Some of that boost has come from the new faces. Jo Adell’s 18 RBIs are the most by a player in his first 18 games with Cleveland since Mark Reynolds in 2013.
Austin Hedges has been part of that mix too, and his production has been one of the strangest developments of the season. His 110 wRC+ means he has been 10 percent better than league average offensively, which is a world away from the numbers he posted in the previous three seasons.
Hedges and hitting coach Grant Fink have said the change has come mostly from his approach, though he’s also using a more open stance. He’s more selective now, more certain about which pitches he can handle, and that has helped him to a .270/.338/.397 line.
His strikeout rate has dropped from 34.2 percent in 2024 to 23.9 percent in 2025 and 16.6 percent in 2026.
And then there’s Velazquez, tearing through Triple-A pitching in Columbus. In August, he has a .379/.447/1.015 slash line, with 14 homers and 11 strikeouts this month.
He has 16 home runs in his last 21 games and even hit 13 in a 14-game stretch. Cleveland has reasons to hold off on a promotion this year: he’s only 21, adding him to the 40-man roster would affect his minor-league status in the event of a lockout, and a big-league role would likely mean left field or designated hitter.
That’s a crowded spot right now, with Ramírez, DeLauter and Adell sharing time there.
In Other News...
Kyle Manzardo Is Facing A Big Test In Triple A
Kyle Manzardos return to Triple-A has become more than a simple roster move for the Guardians. After Cleveland brought in Nathaniel Lowe, the club sent Manzardo back down, and he has responded with some real production, putting up a .264/.339/.547 line with four homers in 62 plate appearances. The power is still obvious, and it is easy to see why the organization remains invested in his bat.
The bigger question is what comes next, because the strikeouts and contact issues are still part of the picture. Cleveland seems intent on using this stint to sharpen specific areas of his game rather than just letting the results speak for themselves, which makes this assignment feel like an important checkpoint in his development. For a player with his kind of offensive ceiling, the challenge now is turning those flashes into something more consistent before the next opportunity comes. [Read more 🡒]
Stephen Vogt Has A Lineup Problem Cleveland Cant Ignore
Stephen Vogt has spent much of the season mixing and matching, and the result has been a Guardians lineup that has changed constantly from night to night. Cleveland has already used 119 different lineups, a sign of both the roster flexibility Vogt likes and the uncertainty that comes with it. The idea behind the churn is understandable, but as the season wears on, the club looks like one that could use more definition, not less.
For Cleveland, the argument now is for a steadier core over the final stretch, one that gives players clearer roles and the defense a chance to settle in behind it. The suggested answer is less about chasing a perfect order than about finding one that can stick, with a few spots still rotating while the everyday pieces remain in place. Whether Vogt leans that way will say plenty about how he sees this teams best path forward. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Are Climbing But One Doubt Still Follows This Run
The Guardians have turned a late-season surge into real movement in the AL Central, sweeping the Rockies and pulling within 3.5 games of the first-place White Sox. With Jo Adell and Foster Griffin helping fuel the recent run, Cleveland has made itself a factor again at a time when plenty of teams would already be planning ahead. The schedule also looks favorable, which only adds to the sense that this group has a chance to keep climbing if the momentum holds.
Still, the bigger question is whether the deficit is simply too much to erase with 31 games left, especially with Cleveland sitting one game under .500 and tied for the final AL Wild Card spot. The Guardians have bought themselves meaningful hope, but they have not yet played themselves out of the kind of uncertainty that comes with every stretch run. The next few weeks should show whether this surge is the start of something lasting or just a brief push that leaves them on the edge of the race. [Read more 🡒]