Wednesday's 1:10 PM ET closer at Progressive Field is the third game of this set, and the pitching draw is the most compelling part of the week. Jacob deGrom is scheduled for a start against Cleveland in this series — he's posted a 19:3 K:BB ratio over his last 3 starts in June while allowing just 2 earned runs across 17 innings, a run that has pushed his overall ERA down to 3.17. Parker Messick gets the Guardians' assignment against Texas — a rookie who has quietly become a legitimate AL story at 7-3 with a 2.70 ERA. Their probable matchup on Wednesday, July 1 is one of the better pitching setups on the board before the All-Star break. The context matters. Texas swept Toronto last weekend — 6-5, 5-4, 7-4 — after dropping back-to-back games in Miami to open the road trip. Corey Seager, back from a concussion IL stint that cost him 12 games, hit a solo homer in Sunday's finale and is on a managed return schedule that had him sitting out the series opener against Cleveland Monday night. Meanwhile, the Guardians have been playing most of June without Jose Ramirez, who went under the knife for a hamate fracture on June 16 and faces a 5-to-7-week recovery. They're still above .500 at 43-40, but their offense hasn't looked like the same unit since he went down. Texas's 3-game Toronto swing was exactly what a team sitting under .500 needed to find. They outscored the Blue Jays 18-13 across the series, Jake Burger went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI in Sunday's finale, and the Rangers have now homered in 10 consecutive games. Cleveland's recent form tells a different story — 2-3 over their last 5, a series loss in Chicago to the White Sox before splitting with Seattle at home. They scratched out a 4-3 win Sunday to avoid a home series loss, but that offense is clearly missing something. Both IL lists are ugly, but Cleveland's hits at the roster level in a way that's harder to paper over. Ramirez is the headline loss — their franchise hitter, gone until at least mid-July. But Chase DeLauter (rib) and Angel Martinez (foot) are also down, stripping the Guardians' lineup of depth at multiple spots. The team's offense went ice cold without that group, averaging barely a run in several recent contests. Texas has its own problems — Wyatt Langford is day-to-day with hamstring tightness after being scratched Saturday, Jack Leiter is out indefinitely following ankle surgery, Evan Carter is still rehabbing an oblique, Danny Jansen's forearm won't let him catch, and Cody Freeman just landed on the IL with a herniated disc. But getting Seager back into the lineup matters more than any of those losses hurt in the short term. There's real stakes here for both sides. The Guardians at 43-40 are in a division race in the AL Central and cannot afford to give away home series as the second half approaches. Texas at 41-42 is trying to stay relevant in the AL West and needs road wins to make that case. A series win at Progressive Field — taking Wednesday, July 1 — would say something about where this Rangers team is heading. Messick likely has something to say about that.