Bieber fans 10; Tribe walks it off again

CLEVELAND — After his 12th and final start of the 2020 regular season, there aren’t many adjectives left to describe the way Shane Bieber has dominated on the rubber. He’s hit milestones, set records and made it as easy on American League Cy Young Award voters as possible. Now, he’ll

CLEVELAND — After his 12th and final start of the 2020 regular season, there aren’t many adjectives left to describe the way Shane Bieber has dominated on the rubber. He’s hit milestones, set records and made it as easy on American League Cy Young Award voters as possible. Now, he’ll look to bring AL Triple Crown honors back to Cleveland for the first time since 1940.

It wasn’t his best outing of the year, but “laboring” for Bieber in 2020 has been defined as a similar line to Wednesday’s performance: five innings, two hits, one unearned run, three walks and 10 strikeouts. And it was enough to help lead the Tribe to a 3-2 walk-off victory over the White Sox at Progressive Field on a Jordan Luplow solo blast. Cleveland now trails Chicago by just two games in the AL Central.

• Box score

From the second Bieber first fanned 14 batters on Opening Day, he immediately established himself as the frontrunner to take home the AL Cy Young Award. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he tied the record for the most strikeouts through the first two starts of a season (27). He later became the fastest pitcher to reach 100 strikeouts in a season (through 62 1/3 innings), and he owned the second-longest streak in Major League history by recording at least eight strikeouts in each of his first 12 starts of the year, trailing just Randy Johnson, who did so in his first 15 starts in 2000.

But Bieber’s accolades for the regular season aren’t over just yet. The 25-year-old has a chance at becoming the Indians’ first AL Triple Crown winner since Bob Feller in 1940. He ended his season with a 1.63 ERA, eight wins and 122 strikeouts. Just Gerrit Cole of the Yankees and Marco Gonzales of the Mariners could tie Bieber in wins if they pick up one more by Sunday.

Could Bieber find a way to top that? The right-hander not only sits atop the AL leaderboard in the Triple Crown categories, but he also leads all qualified pitchers in the Majors. As of Wednesday night, Reds starter and former Tribe player Trevor Bauer was second to Bieber in ERA (1.73) and strikeouts (100). Bieber would become the first pitcher to win the MLB Triple Crown since Johan Santana in 2006.