CLEVELAND -- After leading MLB with 83 walks in 2025, Gavin Williams has made it a priority to rein in the number of free passes he permits this year. The big right-hander even has a humorous running joke he’s maintaining with himself along the way.
“I keep telling myself I’m stacking them up: the other pitcher had more walks than me again today,” Williams said with a wry smile. “It’s just a running joke with myself, especially coming off of last year, leading the league in walks.
“It doesn’t happen often,” Williams added with a chuckle. "But you’ve got to joke about something.”
That it happened on Wednesday was representative of Williams’ dominance in the Guardians’ 3-1 win over the Rays at Progressive Field. He allowed just one unearned run on five hits over 7 2/3 innings, in which he struck out nine batters and permitted zero walks.
Wednesday marked the fourth consecutive outing Williams issued fewer walks than the opposing club’s starting pitcher. Tampa Bay’s Drew Rasmussen walked one batter in five innings of work. It also was only Williams’ third career start allowing zero walks, and he snapped a 45-start streak in which he had at least one.
“That's honestly pretty crazy,” Williams said of the 45-start streak that dated to Aug. 10, 2024. “That's what happens when you pound the zone.”
That’s the larger point here. As he continues to prove, Williams is tough to hit when he pounds the strike zone and goes right at hitters. That keyed his breakout in 2025, when his 2.18 ERA after the All-Star break was tied with Tarik Skubal for second in the Majors. Williams walked only 26 batters in 12 starts in the second half.
“When Gavin throws strikes, that's what you get,” manager Stephen Vogt said postgame Wednesday. “He looked under control from the first inning on, and even until we took him out. He was under control, pounding the zone, not a whole lot of hard-hit balls.”
Williams faced two batters over the minimum through his first six innings of work. He hit Hunter Feduccia with a pitch in the third, and Chandler Simpson hit a single two batters later. Vogt pointed to Williams’ four-seam fastball as a particular key to his performance. Tampa Bay struck out eight times against Williams’ heater and went 2-for-17 with five strikeouts against it.
“It was an impressive outing, that’s for sure,” Rasmussen said. “He’s got monster stuff and from what I’ve heard is very competitive.”
Williams’ fastball has been a key to his success through his first seven starts this season. Entering Wednesday, it was averaging 96.7 mph, and opponents had hit just .100 against it with an expected batting average of .144. In 2025, they hit .268 against it with a .272 expected batting average.
By the sound of it, Williams is trying to be less fine and simply trusting his stuff to work like he’s proven it can.
“Honestly, just think about throwing it right down the middle,” he said of his four-seamer. “It's going to do something. It's not always going to end up right down the middle. Just acting like the catcher set up down the middle is helping me out.”
Williams had reassumed the MLB lead in strikeouts (53) at the time the Guardians' win went final. On the heels of his breakout second half last year, he’s enjoyed a strong start to 2026 (2.70 ERA in 43 1/3 innings over seven starts).
Wednesday was especially impressive.
“It was about as good as we've ever seen Gavin,” Vogt said.