The Cleveland Guardians’ offense is capable of some really frustrating peaks and valleys. For example, they scored 22 runs in two games between Friday and Saturday. Then, in their three subsequent games, they scored a total of six.
Their hitters are capable of the best, but also the worst. However, it seems that Tanner Bibee always gets the short end of the stick when it’s his turn to pitch, in terms of run support.
Bibee is 0-5 on the season, and the Guardians are 0-7 when he takes the ball this year. That’s a stunningly horrible record for a pitcher who, with an ERA of 4.58, hasn’t been that bad. He hasn’t been particularly effective, but certainly not 0-5 bad.
Every time he toes the rubber, the Guardians’ offense goes silent, the defense activates Rookie-ball mode, and his own batted-ball luck is abnormally bad. Of course, he also makes costly command mistakes, and that needs to be said, as well. It’s certainly a weird trend as Joe Noga and Paul Hoynes explain on the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast.
“There’s one guy in every rotation where things take weird turns every time he goes out there,” Hoynes said. “And I think Bibee has been that guy for the last couple of years for Cleveland. I mean, he was cruising for the first three innings. He retires what, nine of the ten guys he faces. And then, you know, he hangs a pitch to Bobby Witt, who starts the fourth inning with the home run.”
Hoynes is talking about Bibee’s most recent start, on Monday against the Kansas City Royals. He retired the first three innings without much issue, but encountered some problems in the fourth and ended up surrendering four runs. That Witt home run was the opening blow, and everything unraveled from that point on.
From three scoreless frames, Bibee went to four innings in which he allowed four runs. The Guardians, and the pitcher himself, need to be patient, but he also has to do what he can to improve, and that includes avoiding the fat part of the zone.
To be fair, Witt’s homer came on a cutter that wasn’t even in the strike zone:
It’s part of Bibee’s bad run with luck these days. He is very talented and should bounce back eventually, at least to some extent, but this stretch has been very frustrating for him.
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