The Guardians steamed into the All-Star break that began on July 13 on a four-game winning streak — the last three a pitching clinic against the Marlins in Miami.
The pitching was brilliant, too, July 23 in a deflating, 3-1, 12-inning afternoon loss to the Twins at Progressive Field. That steam built up by sweeping the Marlins has evaporated.
The Guardians went 3-4 on the homestand that started with three contests with the Pirates. Cleveland went 1-2 and scored one run in each of the losses.
Home-field advantage doesn’t exist for the Guardians in 2026. They are 54-50 and in second place behind the White Sox in the American League Central Division. They are an unimpressive 27-26 at Progressive Field.
The Guardians were 45-36 at home in 2025 (88-74 overall) when they won the Central Division by one game over the Tigers. They were 50-30 at Progressive Field in 2024 (92-69 overall) when they won the division by 6.5 games over the Royals.
A crowd of 27,354 on July 23 sat through a game that took 3 hours, 23 minutes to play and had only gorgeous weather, starting pitcher Gavin Williams and reliever Colin Holderman to talk about on the ride home. That is assuming they would talk about positive things.
Fans looking to gripe did not have to search hard for topics.
The Guardians batted 38 times and amassed only three hits. Catcher Patrick Bailey homered in the bottom of the fifth for a 1-0 Cleveland lead. Steve Kwan singled once in the third inning and again in the eighth. That’s it.
The Guardians were 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. They did not manage even one hit in the 10th, 11th or 12th innings, which all started with an automatic runner on second base. That is why a division contender is one game over .500 at home more than 100 games into the season.
“Obviously, extra innings was really tough for us,” manager Steven Vogt said. “We had two opportunities to get the winning run to third base with nobody out and just weren’t able to do it.
“It was a frustrating day offensively. Taj Bradley (Twins starter) was outstanding. Their pitching was just like ours was. I mean, this was a well-pitched game on both sides. Gavin was unbelievable.”
Williams struck out 11 Twins and did not allow a run or a walk. He gave up two hits. He is the first pitcher in franchise history to strike out 11 batters and not allow a walk in back-to-back starts.
Williams threw an immaculate inning in the fourth — striking out Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell on nine straight pitches — and all he had to show for it was a no-decision.
“This year I’ve taken a step forward throwing a lot more strikes, obviously,” Williams said. “I’m going to keep trying to do that, pushing forward. But there’s a lot of things paying off.
“There’s definitely a confidence component of that. Just knowing that I got good stuff and can get anybody out at any point helps out, too.”
Holderman pitched scoreless 10th and 11th innings. He did not allow a hit.
Hitters 2-through-9 in the Guardians lineup were a combined 1-for-34. Kwan, Chase DeLauter, Brayan Rocchio and Travis Bazzana all had a chance to be a hero before Twins scored twice off Erik Sabrowski in the top of the 12th. All four failed.
A three-game series with the Rays in Tampa begins on July 24. The Guardians are 27-24 on the road.