Tanner Bibee Has Honest Admission About Losing Blue Jays Series

Tanner Bibee did not shy away from crediting Toronto after Cleveland dropped the rubber match of a critical three-game series on Thursday, offering a candid assessment of just how tough the opposing pitching had been throughout the set.

The Guardians fell 6-3 to the Blue Jays at Progressive Field, a result that dropped Cleveland back to an even 70-70 on the season and trimmed the club’s cushion in the American League Wild Card race to just half a game over Toronto. Bibee walked five batters and was charged with four runs in a rough fifth inning that ultimately decided the outcome, but rather than dwell on his own command issues, he pointed to the caliber of pitching Cleveland had faced across the series. Dylan Cease tossed six scoreless innings the night before, and Jose Soriano followed him up by limiting the Guardians to three runs over four and two-thirds innings on Thursday.

“We faced some good pitchers,” Bibee said. “They’re also a good team. They were in the World Series last year. I think it’s just putting [the series] behind us and move forward.”

Bibee elaborated further, noting that Toronto is not just a talented pitching staff but a genuinely good team, one that played its way into the World Series a year ago. He made clear that the right approach going forward is simply to move past the series rather than let it linger, a mindset that fits the bigger picture Cleveland’s leadership has tried to emphasize throughout September.

What the Guardians do control is their own play, and that message was echoed by Stephen Vogt before the series even began. Vogt pointed out that Cleveland’s remaining schedule is packed with matchups against teams it is either chasing in the division or fighting for a Wild Card spot, framing that reality as an opportunity rather than a burden.

There was a silver lining buried in an otherwise frustrating week. Chicago dropped a three-game series of its own to Houston, keeping Cleveland’s deficit in the American League Central at three games despite the setback against Toronto. Unlike a season ago, the Guardians currently hold a playoff position outright rather than chasing one from the outside looking in, a distinction that puts more of the outcome in their own hands as the calendar moves toward a stretch of games against Detroit, Baltimore, Minnesota, Chicago and Boston. If Bibee’s postgame comments were any indication, Cleveland has no intention of letting one difficult series against a quality opponent change the approach heading into that stretch.