Three Positives From the Week of July 13th

A much-needed break resulted in a successful series for the second-place Guardians.

The Guardians received a much-needed break last week, except for the skipper and Steven Kwan, who participated in the All-Star festivities.

Kwan Has Big Moment

Outfielder Steven Kwan had two at-bats in this year’s All-Star Game, and he made the most of it. His first appearance was against Trevor Megill of the Milwaukee Brewers, and he grounded out to end the top of the sixth inning. In his second appearance, he faced Edwin Díaz of the New York Mets and hit an infield single, allowing Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals to score and tie the game. Kwan also stole second base, but was unable to capitalize before the end of the inning. His heroic eighth inning was, unfortunately, not enough to earn him the MVP title, but the game surely would not have been as exciting without him.

Huge Jump in the Standings

If you’ve kept up with the team lately, you know that things were really bad, and then they were really good. After the break, they’ve continued to be really good. In their first series back, they took a 2-1 series win against the Athletics. In their two victories, they scored eight runs in a couple of full-team contributions. With that, the leapt upwards in the standings, moving from fourth place to second place. While they are still 11 games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers, they’re just 4.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. If they can keep this momentum up through the heat of the season, it will definitely be an exciting September.

Cecconi Making a Name

I’ve written about this earlier in the year, but I can’t leave it out this week. Slade Cecconi has been making a name for himself all season, becoming an extremely reliable option in the rotation. He proved that once more in the series opener against the Athletics, where he went 8.1 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits. That doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, however, because prior to the eighth inning, he had only given up three runs. He’s been an extremely pleasant surprise throughout this season, and I’m very excited to see how he will adapt to the later part of the season and (hopefully) the postseason.