Guardians Rookie Makes History Striking Out 12 Blue Jays, Sets New Career-High

Cleveland Guardians rookie Gavin Williams sets a new career-high as he strikes out 12 Toronto Blue Jays.

Gavin Williams was compared to some of baseball's best pitchers such as Gerrit Cole prior to making his Big League debut. His fastball can easily hit high-nineties combined with an easy curveball giving hitters plenty of trouble to sit back on anything.

He'd made eight starts for the Cleveland Guardians heading into Monday night and showed flashes of potential, but largely faced growing pains many rookie pitchers go through instead of the pure dominance we saw in the minors. 

Some of this may have to do with Williams making starts against some of baseball's best lineups such as the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, and Philadelphia Phillies. 

Cleveland saw another elite offense on Monday night in the Toronto Blue Jays. Of course, Williams was the starting pitcher for the Guardians but he didn't have the same struggles as in the past. 

Toronto's lineup is the fourth-best in the American League in team batting average (.272) and fifth-high in OPS (.753). Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Matt Chapman, and George Springer, who are all former All-Stars, were in the lineup on Monday night and Williams made them look silly.

Williams never missed a beat. He struck out six of the first Blue Jay batters and had a career-high eight strikeouts through the first four innings. The 23-year-old finished with 12 punchouts while only allowing one hit and one walk.

Gavin was the definition of efficient. He threw 90 pitches over 7.0 innings and 61 of them registered as strikes. 

Gavin looked like an ace tonight!#Guardians | #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/3g1gWCqj62

— Cleveland Guardians On SI (@GuardiansOnSI) August 8, 2023

Gavin Williams is now the only rookie in the history of Cleveland's 122 franchise history to record 12+ strikeouts while allowing no more than one hit. 

Cleveland is notably down a number of starting pitchers including Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie. They're relying heavily on their rookie rotation and starts such as this one from Gavin will keep them in the playoff hunt. 

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Photo Credit © Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports