Nationals Give Shane Bieber Trouble In Guardians Loss

The Cleveland Guardians can't complete the sweep over the Washington Nationals as they lose the series finale, 7-6.

The Guardians had a shot at grabbing their first sweep of the 2023 season but came up short as the Washington Nationals rallied in the eighth inning. Cleveland ended up dropping the series finale 7-6.

One of the biggest storylines is how the Nationals started strong against one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Shane Bieber is the Cleveland Guardians ace and there's always a sense of calmness when he takes the mound because of his consistency. However, that hasn't quite been the case early on this season.

Batters have been ultra-aggressive against Bieber early on in games which has caused him and the offense to dig out of a hole. We saw this happen last week against the New York Yankees, and the same scene began to play out on Sunday against the Washington Nationals in the series finale.

The Nationals jumped all over Bieber in the first innings and ended up scoring first to take an early lead. 

One thing that makes Bieber the ace and All-Star pitcher is his ability to settle down and not let early trouble lead to bigger problems for him. Even with traffic on the bases and giving up some runs, he still went 6.0 innings and finished with four strikeouts and just one walk.

After the game, Terry Francona credited Bieber for his ability to compete despite struggling to throw his cutter.

Unfortunately for the Guardians, this early trouble combined with some bullpen mistakes came back to bite them at Cleveland dropping the series finale and a chance to win. 

Next up on the calendar is the Detroit Tigers as the Guardians will finally get a look at their first AL Central team in 2023. 

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