Guardians’ AL Central lead shrinks with 2nd straight loss to Rays

CLEVELAND — A loss with Tanner Bibee on the mound is rare for the Guardians, but it seems as though Tampa Bay just has Cleveland’s number.

The Rays have now taken four of five matchups against the Guardians in 2024 after Cleveland fell, 3-1, on Friday night at Progressive Field. And with a Royals win over the Pirates, Kansas City sits just three games back of Cleveland in the American League Central with 14 games remaining in the regular season.

“They know how to pitch, and they’ve kept us off balance,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of the Rays. “They’re executing their offspeed pitches, and we need to do better against them.”

Bibee’s turn in the rotation has almost become a guaranteed victory for the Guardians, considering the team had won 20 of his 28 starts entering the night. Only Sean Manaea and Shota Imanaga (both 21) had started more team victories in the Majors this season. But Bibee gave up a two-run homer in the third and a solo shot in the fourth before settling back in. He ended his day having given up three runs in six innings with no walks and nine strikeouts.

“I think that just shows again how Tanner’s progressing and the type of pitcher that he is to get into a hole like that and to bear down and get us out of that inning and keep us in the game,” Vogt said. “And like I said, six innings, three runs — we’ll take that 100 out of 100 times. He did his job tonight, and he battled through it.”

The problem was, Cleveland’s bats couldn’t help bail Bibee out of trouble. The night started on an ominous note for the Guardians, as their leadoff hitter and left fielder Steven Kwan was scratched from the lineup due to back soreness. Luck certainly didn’t shift in their favor after first pitch, as the lineup was held to just four hits. Two of those came off Rays starter Zack Littell, who tossed six scoreless innings without issuing a walk.

“His slider tonight had a bunch of different shapes,” Vogt said of Littell. “Some were backing up. Some were going straight across. Some had depth. He was able to shape his slider in a number of different ways, and then he didn’t have the split the first few innings, but then he found it around the third and didn’t throw his fastball for a strike very often. He just really worked us with the offspeed.”

This has been the story for the Guardians this season against the Rays. These two teams have only met for two series, but Tampa Bay has limited Cleveland to just seven runs in five games, while holding the club to a measly 4-for-32 (.125 average) with runners in scoring position.

“Anybody you face, most guys, the majority of the time, they’re going to throw a fastball and then pitch off of that,” said David Fry, who had a pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth inning. “Got to find a way to take that away from the guys. Give them credit, they’ve pitched well the last couple of days and their bullpen’s really good for a reason, but hopefully [we’ll] get back on them tomorrow.”

Entering the day, the Guardians could have been celebrating a playoff berth as early as Sunday, as long as they picked up three straight wins and the Tigers, who are still hanging on to playoff hopes, dropped three straight. But with the loss and a Detroit win over Baltimore on Friday, Cleveland will have to push back any celebrations at least to Monday.

The Guardians are close. Now, they just have to cross the finish line. But this group knows that they have their work cut out for them for the final two games of the series. Momentum has not shifted in Cleveland’s favor against this Tampa Bay pitching staff. The offense has to hope that the narrative is different on Saturday and Sunday.

“Tampa knows how to pitch,” Vogt said. “This is five games now we’ve played against them where we’ve struggled to put runs up. So we’ve got our work cut out for us the next two days, but we’re going to do what we do every day, show up ready to play and go out and give it our best.”