Guardians’ Tanner Bibee Sets New Career High In Dominant Start Against Mariners
“My job’s easy. I just have to call the pitch setup.”
“If it's easy for him, it’s gotta be easier for me."
Bo Naylor and Steven Kwan joked after watching Cleveland Guardians starter Tanner Bibee dominate the Seattle Mariners lineup on Wednesday night. His effort helped the Guards come away with an 8-0 victory and a chance to take the series on Thursday afternoon.
Bibee pitched 6.0 innings and finished his start against the Mariners allowing just three hits, no runs, one walk, and a new career-high 12 strikeouts.
It wasn’t just that Bibee was striking batters out, he was under complete control and Mariners hitters had trouble even making contact with his pitches. Out of the 90 pitchers Bibee threw, the Mariners swung and missed 20 of them. These whiffs (eight) came from his slider which is easily his best put-away pitch.
Tanner Bibee, K'ing the Side in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/HoPJKZqVnb
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 19, 2024
Bibee said that it came down to getting in a rhythm early but also gave Bo a ton of credit for calling a great fame behind the plate.
Stephen Vogt had high praise for Bibee and the way he stepped up against the Mariners.
“Big-time pitchers step up when they’ve got the big lights and that’s exactly what Tanner did tonight. He gave us six solid innings, and allowed us to not have to stretch the pen even thinner … The punchouts were efficient tonight, you know, you look at the punchouts in Cincinnati, they were there but they weren’t quite as efficient as they were tonight."
Bibee has been locked in over his last two stats. It was just a week ago that he set his career-high in strikeouts with 11 against the Cincinnati Reds.
The struggles of Cleveland’s starting pitching have been a hot-button topic, especially over the last few weeks. At least the Guardians know they have a pitcher such as Bibee they can rely on every five days.
TOMMY WILD