Dustin May and Tanner Bibee will start on the mound for Tuesday’s Dodgers—Guardians pitching matchup. That particular pitching duel has a few parallels worth pointing out.

Both starters, in their own way, could be used to symbolize and will inevitably battle a sort of underwhelming feeling. On the Dodgers’ side, here is a World Series favorite whose closest thing to a number two starter at the moment is a starter in his sixth big league season, having yet to pitch over 60 innings in a single campaign. May has been pretty solid with a 4.02 ERA, but even with the acknowledgment that this rotation carried a ton of injury risk heading into 2025, the plan was never to rely on him so heavily this early.

For the Guardians, Bibee has also been pretty solid in a vacuum with a 3.57 ERA, but when you account for the expectations he set forth by his 2024 campaign, the cause for concern is there. Bibee’s FIP is over 5.00, and the right-hander has seen a drastic decrease in strikeout rate, currently 18.1%, well below the major-league average.

On the flip side, one can also focus on the positive of seeing May remain healthy and giving the Dodgers a good fighting chance every time he takes the mound, which is almost all this offense ever really needs. With the Guardians, you have a very talented starter grinding out solid results, even though things are far from smooth with his arsenal.

Offensively, one of the primary goals is still to try and get Mookie Betts going, the only superstar who hasn’t really clicked this season. Mookie historically does pretty well in Cleveland, with a .902 OPS in 17 games at the home of the Guardians, but at the same time, it’s not like that number is much different from the career line of this future Hall of Famer.

Having lost the services of Josh Naylor, who was traded to the Diamondbacks this offseason, Cleveland’s offense has taken a step back in the second year under Stephen Vogt (92 team OPS+ in comparison with 100 in 2024),. However, José Ramírez remains the same dangerous of old. Ramírez is second on the team in homers with nine, trailing the youngster Kyle Manzardo, who has really grown this year.

Tuesday game info

Teams: Dodgers at Guardians
Stadium: Progressive Field, Cleveland
Start time: 3:10 p.m. PT
TV: SportsNet LA
Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)