Decision to pull Bibee before facing Altuve again leads to 3-run 6th for Astros
HOUSTON — After Tanner Bibee allowed a base hit to Isaac Paredes in the sixth inning on Friday, the Guardians reached an inflection point against the Astros. Cleveland was clinging to a 3-2 lead over Houston, which had runners at first and second base with only one out.
Bibee’s pitch count sat at 95 as a third matchup with Astros star second baseman Jose Altuve loomed. The decision facing manager Stephen Vogt was not entirely black and white, but resided in more of a gray area.
Should he stick with Bibee? Or turn things over to the bullpen, which had Matt Festa warming up?
Vogt opted for the latter. The game soon turned on its head.
Festa allowed a first-pitch three-run home run to Altuve, as the Guardians fell into a two-run hole in their eventual 9-3 loss to the Astros at Daikin Park in the opener of a three-game series.
“Matt Festa has been outstanding all year, coming in in that fireman pivot role,” Vogt said. “Just mislocation to Altuve and a couple others. Matty just had a tough night.”
Friday’s loss doesn’t fall squarely on Festa. The reality here is that the Guardians have less margin for error now than they did one week ago. Losing José Ramírez (left hamate fracture), Chase DeLauter (right rib cage fracture) and Angel Martínez (non-displaced left foot fracture) to the injured list was a rough blow to Cleveland.
Those injuries will serve as a backdrop to whatever happens over the coming weeks, when the Guardians must find a way to win however they can to stay afloat in the American League Central.
The smaller moments are going to loom even larger now. Friday was a testament to that.
Bibee was charged with four runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings.
With two outs in the first, he issued a walk to Christian Walker and a single to Paredes. Right fielder Kahlil Watson’s throw back to the infield short-hopped and got past second baseman Travis Bazzana, which allowed Walker to score.
“It looked like a little bit of an in-between hop,” Vogt said. “But also, we’ve got to catch the ball. When a ball is thrown in the big leagues, we’ve got to catch the ball.”
Bibee allowed a solo homer to Jeremy Peña in the third, but otherwise kept the Astros off the board through the fifth. Houston began to rally against him in the sixth, which brings us back to the Altuve decision.
Bibee struck out Altuve in their initial two matchups Friday night. He set him down swinging on a high four-seamer to end the first inning and on a sinker looking in the fourth. One way or another, he was nearing the end of the line as Altuve stepped to the plate for a third time.
“Obviously, I want to stay out there,” Bibee said. “But, like I’ve said before, it’s Vogt’s job to tell me when I’m done. He told me I was done. Obviously I want to go out there. If it was my decision, I’d want to throw 150 pitches, which is not smart.”
Bibee’s pitch count was near 100, and the Astros’ lineup was getting its third look against him. It’s easy to second-guess now; who knows what Altuve may have done against Bibee. What’s more, the Guardians had a 72.6% strand rate through Friday’s loss, which was eighth highest in MLB.
Festa had a 73.3% strand rate (stranding 22 of 30 inherited runners), which was above the league average (69 percent). But Altuve struck quickly enough that there was barely time to question the decision before the game reached its pivotal juncture. Festa’s first pitch to him was a 93.2 mph sinker down and inside. Catcher Patrick Bailey set up high and outside. Altuve turned on it and deposited it into the Crawford Boxes in left field.
“Our bullpen has been phenomenal at coming in and putting out fires,” Vogt said. “It just didn’t happen tonight.”
Festa, Daniel Espino and Erik Sabrowski were charged with five runs on seven hits over the sixth and seventh innings. Beyond those troubles, the Guardians’ lineup failed to produce much — including against Astros starter Tatsuya Imai, who entered Friday with a 6.43 ERA over nine starts.
Cleveland whiffed 26 times as a team (two shy of its season high set on May 31) and scored three times. Bazzana and Brayan Rocchio hit consecutive doubles in the third, and Rhys Hoskins followed with a two-run homer. They know that isn’t going to cut it.
“We’ve done OK with scoring in one inning, putting up a few runs,” Hoskins said. “But if we can just scratch across a few extra runs around the game, it just makes our bullpen that much better, and we feel pretty good late in the game with that.”