One first-inning mistake from Bibee costs Guardians

CLEVELAND -- It was Manny Ramirez Day at Progressive Field, as he and the late Dale Mitchell were inducted into the Guardians Hall of Fame on Saturday. Before the game, Ramirez was asked by local media if he should hit third or fourth in the lineup that evening.

“Whatever it is, I’m ready to play,” he said. “Just put me in the lineup.”

Maybe he was half kidding in his response, but the Guardians certainly could’ve used his dominance with runners in scoring position in the late innings of their 4-3 loss to the Tigers.

It marked the Guardians’ 25th one-run loss of the season. The only other times Cleveland lost more than 25 one-run games in the first 124 contests of a season was 1978 (29) and 2005 (27).

“You play a lot of these one-run games and it seems like there’s one play somewhere in there that changes the game,” Guardians first baseman Kole Calhoun said. “You can narrow it down when it comes to these one-run games. So, just a tough one to swallow.”

And for as much weight as rookie starter Tanner Bibee has pulled for this team over the last two months, the offense was not able to bail him out of trouble.

From the moment Bibee was called up to the big leagues in April, he constantly preached one thing: Get through six innings. Over the last month, Bibee has almost become a guarantee to do just that. He had gone at least six innings in five of his previous six starts -- all while permitting three or fewer runs each time. He had won seven straight decisions and owned an MLB best 1.79 ERA since June 24 (minimum of 40 innings pitched).

But Bibee had a hiccup in the first inning on Saturday, giving up a single, a walk and then a three-run home run to Kerry Carpenter to put the Guardians in a deficit they could not erase.

“I just think they strung together some good at-bats,” Bibee said. “[They] had some long at-bats. I think that was the biggest thing. I think I honestly pitched pretty well. One three-run homer is the difference between us winning and losing. So, I mean, they put together good at-bats and it ultimately won them the game.”

The Guardians offense attempted to fight right back when Calhoun smacked his first homer with the club in the bottom half of the frame to cut the Tigers’ lead to two, which then provided Bibee some comfort that he’d be able to settle in on the rubber.

“I think Kole’s home run in the bottom half definitely helped a little bit just to know that, like, we’re still gonna hit,” Bibee said. “I think it still just helped me kind of be like, 'OK we just need to get deeper in this game, give us a chance to win,' and I feel like I did a decent job, at least.”

A 27-pitch first inning was not a great pace for Bibee to reach his six-inning goal. Another 20 pitches in the second frame made it even more challenging.

But once he reached the third, he locked in and gave up just one more hit for the rest of his outing. Once he made it through five frames, he was at 91 pitches and Guardians manager Terry Francona thought it was best to call it a night.

“I said, 'There’s gonna be a day when you go back out there. I just don’t think the time is right right now to do that,'" Francona said. "It’s hard because the kid’s competing and doing a [great] job competing. [I] just feel a responsibility to keep an eye on him.”

The Guardians are going to have to balance this for the remainder of the season. They have Bibee, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen, who are all pitching more innings than they ever have in their professional careers. But in the time they’re all given to be on the mound, they’ve certainly made the most of it.

That excellence has been headed by Bibee, and one mistake won’t uproot the progress he’s made this year that’s thrown him on the AL Rookie of the Year radar. The Guardians had been able to go through 10 of his starts without handing him a loss until Saturday night. Now, they’ll hope they can restart the streak.

“He’s thrown the ball extremely well for us and did again tonight,” Calhoun said. “I know he comes out on the wrong side of this thing, but he did all we can ask for.”