The Guardians and Astros will meet tonight for a largely meaningless three-game weekend series that begins tonight.

I won’t go into the stats because these teams will likely meet again and the stats don’t matter in a series where both teams are just trying to come out healthy and in a decent rhythm. Credit the Guardians for holding a 6 game lead over the Astros, so the results of these final three games are moot.

Why watch:

1. To see if José Ramírez hits two more home runs and reaches a 40/40 season (with 38 doubles, he’s already 38/38/38, only the second player in MLB history to reach such a line), although Ohtani probably will). become third with two more doubles).

2. To see how the Guardians handle relievers and pitchers. Sounds like Gavin Williams is being considered as a backup. I would imagine the overall plan with the replacements will be to get them going and not show much of a plan of attack. Joey Cantillo and Ben Lively will compete on Friday and Saturday. It will be a bullpen game on Sunday.

3. If there are any interesting positional adjustments (such as Angel Martinez starting in the minors), these could be small clues to the plans for the playoff bench.

Game plan:

Friday, September 27th, 7:10pm EST

Saturday, September 28th, 6:10pm EST

Sunday, September 29th, 3:10pm EST