Bibee a key ingredient in Guards' winning recipe

CLEVELAND -- If the Guardians are going to continue to dominate in the second half of the season like they did in the first, Friday night brought a textbook display of what they’re going to need from their pitching staff.

Tanner Bibee looked like an ace, navigating around three walks and limiting the Padres to two hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. After his departure on his 102nd pitch of the night, the bullpen combined to throw 3 1/3 scoreless frames to hand the Guardians a 7-0 victory over the Padres at Progressive Field.

• Top pick Bazzana signs: 'I wanted to be a Guardian'

“I think we’ve all known he’s a bona fide ace, and I think now the league’s starting to see it,” Guardians All-Star David Fry said. “They’re circling his name, and he’s still putting up zeros every outing.”

Bibee got off to a slow start his year. But after he made an adjustment to his arm angle ahead of his start against the Rangers on May 13, he has improved dramatically:

• First eight starts: 4.91 ERA, .269 opponent batting average, .474 opponent slugging percentage, 25.3% strikeout rate
• Last 12 starts: 2.82 ERA, .198 opponent batting average, .354 opponent slugging percentage, 29.3% strikeout rate

Bibee has nearly been in cruise control. And everyone in the clubhouse knows it (and loves it).

“It’s so much fun,” Fry said. “We have our meetings that start every series, and we talk about the starters and what they’re doing good and how do we keep them going. Lately, it’s just like, ‘All right, let’s talk about Bibee. Yeah, he’s been really, really good. Keep him going. Next guy.’”

Bibee will be the first to tell you that he needed to be a little more efficient so that his pitch count could have allowed him to finish the sixth inning. But he’s proven to be the most reliable starter the Guardians have as he’s settled in, and Friday was the perfect example of his growth.

Bibee threw 27 pitches in just the first inning, which included nine foul balls. Yet, he still managed to almost complete six innings. Earlier this season, he said, that probably would not have happened.

“I think at the start of the season,” Bibee said, “when stuff didn’t start going well, kind of a domino effect to keep going worse. I think after an almost-30-pitch inning for me to almost get through six -- if [Jake] Cronenworth doesn’t have that long at-bat [in the sixth], I probably get through six -- I think is a testament to where I was at in March and now.”

The rotation has been the Guardians’ biggest question mark. But now that Gavin Williams is back in the mix, Cleveland is hoping that this duo can lead the group and provide some much-needed leadership and stability in the second half of the season.

That, in turn, will take some pressure off of the bullpen that led the Majors in ERA in the first half of the season. If Cleveland can regularly have starters finish six innings (or close to it, in Bibee’s case), it can rely on its big three relievers in Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase in the final three frames.

Until the bottom of the eighth on Friday, the Guardians had just a one-run lead. But thanks to 1 1/3 perfect innings from Smith and a scoreless frame from Gaddis, the Guardians’ offense had time to settle in and create so much breathing room for the ninth that Clase could get an extra day of rest. Nick Sandlin handled the final frame.

This is the perfect recipe for the Guardians to have success. Get six innings from their starter, let their big arms in the bullpen handle the late innings and rely on the pitching staff to keep the game close enough to allow the offense to come alive.

The Guardians got off to as hot a start this year as they could’ve asked. But their strength of schedule in the first half was considered the easiest in the Majors (.467 opponent win percentage). In the second half, the schedule is the second-hardest (.523 win percentage), behind only the Rays (.528).

But Bibee and the Guardians are ready for the challenge.

“It’s a nice combination of keep doing what we’re doing and kind of take it up a notch,” Bibee said. “We’re in a major buy mode [for the Trade Deadline] -- I hope. And everyone really wants to win.”