CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee is drawing on his postseason experience as Cleveland prepares for a win-or-go-home Game 2 in its American League wild card series against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field.
The right-hander, who helped pitch Cleveland to the AL Championship Series last year, said the matchup feels a little like a little chess game given the familiarity between the teams.
“This will be the third start against them just like Gavin, just like Skubal and the other guys,” Bibee said Tuesday. “There’s a lot of familiarity between the two of us.”
Bibee acknowledged that managing the rush of emotions remains a key challenge in playoff baseball, even with his previous October experience.
“With all the adrenaline there’s a degree of self-control,” he said. “I feel like getting too fired up can be your enemy, but there’s obviously always a happy medium because your stuff’s a little better, a little harder.”
Bibee enters Wednesday’s start with a 4-3 career record against Detroit in nine regular season starts with a 3.62 ERA and averaging 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings. This season, in three starts, he is 3-0 with a 0.95 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 19 innings. During last year’s playoff run, Bibee faced Detroit twice, with Cleveland winning both games. He totaled 8 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on eight hits with three walks and nine strikeouts.
The pitcher emphasized that his fundamental approach remains unchanged despite the postseason atmosphere. Ahead or behind, Bibee’s job won’t change.
“In the postseason, obviously, you’re trying to win every single game,” Bibee said. “My job when I’m going out there is to prevent runs from being scored or minimizing damage.”
Reflecting on his growth since last year’s playoff run, Bibee cited advice he received about not overestimating opponents.
“One thing that was being said to me last year before the start, don’t give them too much credit because you earned your way here as well,” he said. “We faced these guys for the past two weeks, and we played some good baseball.”
The Guardians have leaned heavily on their organizational depth this season, with several young players stepping into significant roles. Bibee praised teammates like Slade Cecconi, Joey Cantillo and Parker Messick for their contributions during Cleveland’s historic comeback from a 15 1/2 game deficit to make a playoff push.
“Those guys have been thrust into roles,” Bibee said. “Joey started the year in the bullpen, got sent down. Had a very up and down year from his perspective. With Parker being thrust into this in a playoff push, he came along with it.”
Bibee highlighted the team’s “next man up” mentality as crucial to their success.
“That’s been our mantra the last two years,” he said. “When we’re at our best, it’s not one or two or three guys carrying the load. It’s all nine contributing and finding a way to win.”
José Ramírez’s consistency has also helped anchor the clubhouse through both struggles and success.
“He’s the same guy every day,” Bibee said. “When I came up in 2023, when we had a rough stretch of it, he was the same guy down the stretch that September as he was when we were losing ten in a row this year or when we were on our good stretch in September here.”
Generative AI was used to organize information for this story.
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