Tanner Bibee etched his name into the Guardians’ history books today with the longest, and best, start of his career. 9 innings, 2 hits, 0 walks, 0 runs, 10 strikeouts. The first CGSO by a Guardians pitcher since Zach Pleasc (vs. LAA) in 2019. Another achievement taken away from Zach Pleasc in the last week (8+ shoutout innings in consecutive starts, per @/ZackMeisel on Twitter).

Bibee was magnificent today. He was mainly fastball-cutter-changeup-sinker today, with those four pitches making up 90% of his pitch mix today. The fastball returned great results, which is relatively abnormal for Bibee. Nothing about the specs on the fastball changed (IVB, spin rate, velo), he just clearly executed it better. It returned a 43% CSW% (Called Strike + Whiff Rate), significantly above the average MLB SP CSW%. The main problem with Bibee all year has been the ROI on his fastball, and tonight it was fantastic. I’m still not totally sure if this is sustainable, and I do still think he should ditch the fastball entirely in exchange for a cutter-sinker heavy mix. His changeup, too, was fantastic. 4 whiffs on 9 swings, returned a sparkling 57% zone-contact%. The average zone-contact%, for hitters at least, is around the low-80s. Bibee’s fastball, for example, registered an 88% zone-contact%.

Regardless of sustainability, Bibee was as good as you could ever expect from him today. The best start of his career, and of the season. A start he, and the team, so desperately needed. If this team wants to go anywhere in October (or to just get to October, for that matter), they need Bibee to look like his former self. His avgEV (88.9 mph) was right around the MLB avgEV (~89 mph). Helping, too, was the fact that most of the batted balls off Bibee tonight were either popped up or spiked into the ground, which is exactly what you want when giving up balls around that exit velocity.

Let’s talk about the offense. David Fry led off the scoring in the 4th with a solo-homer, breaking up Perez’s no-hitter.

Hedges (lol) and Nolan (lol) both recorded RBI singles (in the 5th and 7th innings, respectively). Nolan’s RBI came in a pinch-hit appearance, replacing Jhonk against a RHP.

Angel Martinez capped off the Guardians’ scoring with this solo homer in the 8th.

Nolan Jones made this catch with two outs in the ninth to preserve the shutout.

Unfortunately, both the Rangers and Astros won tonight, and as of writing this, the Mariners have yet to play. Though, if we want to think about the playoffs, the Mariners are the team we want to win the AL West (hold the tiebreaker against Houston, do not against Seattle).

It’s Parker Messick against Davis Martin tomorrow at 6.