Sometimes in life, it’s just not your day. You drop things, you forget important stuff, and you mess up a big presentation. It happens.
For Cleveland Guardians starter Tanner Bibee, however, you could take it up a notch and say it hasn’t been his year. Sometimes, it hasn’t even been his fault: he has pitched some amazing games, and his offense, defense, or bullpen fail to show up for him to help him secure the win. Sometimes, it’s all of those units failing in the same game, which is baffling.
The situation is best described as a perfect storm of command problems, defensive miscues, silenced bats, and blown leads. It’s been frustrating, as Bibee’s record is a woeful 4-13 despite a fairly decent 4.01 ERA.
On Sunday, he pitched a quality start, but lost anyway. That has happened three times in his last five starts and six times over the course of the full season to this point. Cleveland.com’s reporter Paul Hoynes gave his assessment of the situation.
“If it’s not one thing, it’s another with Bibee,” Hoynes said. “If it’s not the offense not scoring or him giving up runs, home runs, it’s young infielders and outfielders making errors behind him. It’s been a tsunami of stuff for Bibee this year.”
It’s been that kind of year for Bibee. He hasn’t been an ace, sure, but he hasn’t pitched as badly as his 4-13 record suggests. While he has given up plenty of home runs — and those do affect the outcome of games heavily — he has performed like a solid, reliable mid-rotation innings-eater.
The problem has been, mainly, his offense failing to show up for him. Bibee, among qualified pitchers, has received the worst run support with 3.05 RS/9 (run support per nine innings), shrinking the room for error in each of his starts. He goes to the mound thinking that he has to be nearly flawless to have a chance to win a game.
The Guardians know what they have in Bibee, so they don’t mind that win-loss record too much. The same can be said about the pitcher himself. It’s been a rough year for him in many senses, though.
NEXT: Jo Adell Steals The Show With Six-RBI Night As Guardians Win Opener
