‘Guards Ball’ returns for late-inning rally to back Bibee’s stellar start
CLEVELAND — Sometimes, all it takes offensively is just putting the ball in play and seeing what may happen. That was the case for the Guardians in their 4-2 win over the Astros on Sunday at Progressive Field.
Will Wilson dropped down a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning, and it brought home the go-ahead run after Houston reliever Steven Okert made an errant throw to first base, scoring Nolan Jones from second.
“Getting in a little ‘Guards Ball’ with the bunt and the throwaway,” manager Stephen Vogt said. “That looked like us.”
The Guardians offensively thrive upon putting the ball in play and doing damage on the basepaths; it’s a key tenet of Guards Ball. Although there are ebbs and flows to everything over the course of a six-month, 162-game baseball season, offense has been tougher to come by since the start of June.
Entering Saturday, Cleveland had averaged 2.50 runs per game over their first six games this month, which ranked 29th in the Majors. The Guardians’ 28.3 percent strikeout rate was the highest, and their 78 wRC+ ranked 24th. In May, they averaged 4.33 runs per game (ranked 13th in the Majors), had a 21.7 percent K rate (14th) and a 98 wRC+ (tied for 18th).
“Our offense, we’ve struggled. We’ve struggled to score runs, especially early,” Vogt said this weekend. “We’ve done a great job of getting to bullpens. We’ve struggled to score off starting pitching, and we’re well aware of it.”
The June figures are via a small sample size, and the Guardians have faced good opposing starting pitching this month (Carlos Rodón and Max Fried vs. the Yankees; Hunter Brown vs. the Astros this week). At the end of May, they ran into Tarik Skubal vs. the Tigers (May 25) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. the Dodgers (May 26).
It’s been a tough task of late, but the Guardians need more from their lineup — especially with how well their starting rotation has performed. The rotation’s 3.03 ERA this month ranked seventh in the Majors (entering Sunday). The staff’s performance continues to keep Cleveland in games despite the lack of run production.
“We have faced some really good arms, but also starters are the best pitchers in the world,” Vogt said. “… And for our offense, we’re still learning. We’re still developing. I love where this offense is headed. We’re headed in the right direction.
“You’re going to have times where it’s clicking on all cylinders. We’re going to have times where we’re struggling to score runs. But the beauty of this team is we don’t go away, no matter what happens, no matter what the game looks like. We get that tying or winning run to the plate every single night. We’ve just got to find a way to push some runs across sooner.”
There was a familiar script on Sunday. The Guardians led 2-0 until the seventh inning, when Houston scored twice off starter Tanner Bibee to even things at 2. Cleveland responded with a go-ahead rally in the bottom half of the inning: Johnathan Rodríguez and Bo Naylor singled to start off the inning. Jones pinch-ran for Rodríguez and scored on Wilson’s bunt, and Naylor came around on a Steven Kwan sacrifice fly.
The late offense ensured a dominant start by Bibee was not laid to waste. He allowed just two runs on five hits in 6 1/3 innings. A two-run blast by Naylor in the second inning was enough offense for much of the afternoon.
“Tanner picked us up for so many innings,” Naylor said. “It was almost our duty to pick him back up after such an amazing outing that he had.”
Bibee has thrown quality starts in consecutive outings and in three of his past four starts. On Tuesday in New York, he was locked in a pitchers’ duel with Rodón before Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe hit back-to-back homers in the seventh in an eventual 3-2 loss.
Bibee dismissed the potential notion that the starters feel they need to be more precise if the offense is having a tough time scoring.
“I think the offense, when they were going early in April, we weren’t pitching very well,” Bibee said. “It’s just the ebbs and flow of the season. If we put up four runs, we should win. If they put up three runs, we should win.
“That’s how confident our pitching staff is — that if they put up two, three runs, we should win the game.”