A rain delay turned Tanner Bibee’s Sunday into a mess, and the Guardians paid for it in a 7-6 loss to the White Sox at Progressive Field.
Bibee was lined up to start at 2:30, but the weather and the field conditions changed everything. By the time Cleveland finally got the game going, the right-hander was no longer in the same rhythm he had built during a dominant June. The result was a rough outing in the finale of the Guardians’ 10-game homestand, one that ended with Chicago leaving with the win.
“Bibee had gotten warmed up, gotten loose and ready to start the game at 2:30 and then the field conditions wouldn’t let them do so,” Noga explained on the podcast, noting that manager Steven Vogt acknowledged after the game that it definitely impacted his starting pitcher.
The timing issue mattered. Once a starter has gone through that full pregame buildup, there’s only so much more throwing he can do before the arm says enough. Hoynes pointed out that Bibee couldn’t just keep re-warming forever, and that interruption showed once he actually took the mound.
Sunday was a sharp contrast to what Bibee had done in June, when he posted a 1.88 ERA and never gave up more than three earned runs in any start. He looked steady all month, then hit July and ran into trouble.
“Calendar flips to July and, and all of a sudden we’re, we’re back to square one with Tanner,” Noga said on the podcast, capturing the frustration perfectly.
Bibee gave up three home runs in the loss, and Chicago’s power made the damage stick. The White Sox had already shown they could swing it in this matchup, holding a 9-6 edge in home runs over the first seven games between the two teams, and Sunday fit that pattern.
Even with the rough afternoon, Bibee has still been unbeaten in starts against Chicago, which says plenty about how well he’s handled that lineup when everything is in order. But this one was different from the start, and the Guardians could feel it.
For Cleveland, the concern is bigger than one bad day. The club is trying to stay in the mix in the AL Central while dealing with major injuries, and it needs the version of Bibee that showed up in June, not the one that got thrown off by a rain delay.
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