DENVER - Tanner Bibee’s season has not looked flashy on the surface, but the Guardians keep handing him the ball, and Saturday night at Coors Field showed exactly why.
Bibee worked six innings, the Guardians got a huge blast from Jo Adell, and Cleveland held on for a 4-3 win over the Rockies. It was Bibee’s 16th quality start of the year, and the Guardians’ 27th turn for him on the mound told its own story: even with the second-lowest run support among big-league pitchers with at least 130 innings, he keeps giving them a chance.
The right-hander allowed two runs on five hits over six innings, and the victory snapped a four-decision losing streak. It was his first win since July 20 against the Twins. Six of his last seven starts have now been quality outings, which fits the kind of season manager Stephen Vogt was pointing to before the game when he said, “Tanner Bibee has had a great season.”
Cleveland’s offense did its biggest damage in the fourth, when Adell launched a three-run homer that gave Bibee a cushion. Chase DeLauter started the inning with a walk against Rockies starter Gabriel Hughes, Jose Ramirez followed with a single to right, and then Adell jumped on a 1-0 pitch and sent it 450 feet into the left field bleachers. It was Adell’s 20th homer of the season, his fourth with Cleveland, and it pushed his RBI total to 77 on the year, including 15 with the Guardians.
Ramirez’s single also carried a milestone of its own. It was the 1,752nd hit of his career, moving him past Charlie Jamieson and into fifth place in franchise history.
Colorado kept scraping back. The Rockies got on the board in the fourth when Willi Castro reached on a two-out bloop single to right and Troy Johnston doubled to make it 3-1.
In the fifth, Mickey Moniak cut the lead to one with a two-out homer to right on Bibee’s 0-1 pitch. That was Moniak’s 21st homer, and it marked Bibee’s 26th allowed homer of the season, second-most in the AL.
Cleveland answered right away in the sixth. Adell led off with a single, Nathaniel Lowe beat out an infield hit that nicked reliever Nick Frasso’s glove, and Patrick Bailey later singled to left to bring Adell home and make it 4-2.
The Guardians did not get a clean finish. Connor Norby led off the ninth with a homer off closer Cade Smith to pull Colorado within 4-3, but Smith still closed it out for his 33rd save in 38 chances.
The win was part of a stronger stretch for Cleveland, which is 13-20 since the All-Star break but has now won three straight and four of its last five. Bibee’s latest outing also came against a Rockies team he had already beaten in his big-league debut at Progressive Field on April 26, 2023.
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