Guardians' Tanner Bibee Joins Exclusive Company After Brilliant Start Against Mariners
Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee put forth his lasted dominant performance on Wednesday night, throwing six shutout innings while striking out 12 batters and allowing just three hits and one walk in an 8-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.
In doing so, Bibee joined some pretty rare company, becoming just the third pitcher in Guardians history to log at least 11 strikeouts with no more than one walk in back-to-back starts.
Tanner Bibee joins Corey Kluber and Shane Bieber as the only pitchers in Cleveland franchise history to have consecutive starts with 11+ K and 1/0 BB.
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Bibee improved to 5-2 and dropped his ERA to 3.68 with the win. Through 81.1 innings this season, the 25-year-old has surrendered just 71 hits while registering 99 punchouts. He also lays claim to an impressive 1.13 WHIP.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was a catcher during his own playing career, so he knows what it's like to witness an outing like Bibee's.
"It's a fun night to catch," Vogt said. "When you have an elite pitcher with all of his pitches working, it kinds of feels like you're playing video games. ... It's so much fun to call a game like that for someone is executing over and over."
Bibee was able to generate 20 swings and misses out of 93 pitches, which is an incredibly impressive feat.
The Cal-State Fullerton product is in just his second big-league season. Last year, he went 10-4 with a 2.98 ERA, giving up 122 hits while fanning 141 hitters over 142 frames of work. He finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting for his efforts.
Cleveland improved to 45-26 with its victory over the Mariners and snapped a three-game losing streak in the process. It will aim to win the series when it faces Seattle in the rubber match on Thursday afternoon.
MATTHEW SCHMIDT