The Cleveland Guardians couldn’t steal a win in the first game of their three-game series at Yankee Stadium.
However, Tanner Bibee held his own with Carlos Rodón, and he had a strong outing against the New York Yankees.
The Guardians’ right-hander’s big performance came in a losing effort, but manager Stephen Vogt couldn’t have been prouder of him:
“[Tanner] Bibee was outstanding,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s as good as we’ve seen him. Cruising, keeping his pitch count low, getting weak contact, a lot of punchouts tonight. His outing was much better than his line ended up being.
Bibee allowed three earned runs on four hits while walking out two in 6.1 innings.
He dominated the first 11 hitters he faced, with two of the three runs he allowed coming in the seventh inning.
Yankees’ third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. and shortstop Anthony Volpe got him with back-to-back home runs to give the Yankees a two-run lead.
Bibee has struggled against the long ball this season.
So far, he’s surrendered the third-most homers in the Majors (14), although most of those struggles came in the earlier stretch of the campaign.
Even so, Bibee has been mostly solid this season, earning three or fewer runs in eight of his 12 starts of the year.
The right-hander recorded a 3.10 ERA in 49.1 frames during his past eight starts, and he’s given the team at least six innings in six of those performances.
Ironically, perhaps that’s what doomed him on Tuesday night, as he had thrown 93 pitches through the first six innings, which is why Vogt trusted him to take care of business in the seventh as well.
Now, the series will resume on Wednesday at 7:05 pm (ET) with Luis L. Ortiz taking the mound against Clarke Schmidt
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