KANSAS CITY -- When he took the mound Monday night, Tanner Bibee had only known Kauffman Stadium to be his happy place. Four career starts in the Royals’ ballpark had resulted in four victories and a nice 2.78 ERA for Bibee.
But in the fourth inning of the Guardians’ 6-2 loss to Kansas City, the good vibes suddenly faded away. A dose of extra-base damage inflicted by Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, in addition to a pair of plays that were not made defensively, resulted in a four-run uprising and an early exit by Bibee in the park where he had previously only tasted success.
The evening had actually started in promising fashion for Bibee. He didn’t allow a hit through three innings and David Fry’s two-run homer in the second marked the first time in five starts that Bibee had received any run support.
Then came the fateful fourth.
Witt led off the inning with a no-doubt homer to left. After Pasquantino doubled to right-center, Salvador Perez hit a slow roller that skipped over the second base bag and under the glove of Travis Bazzana to set up the big inning. Pasquantino scored on the play and a two-out, two-run single by Nick Loftin later capped the rally.
The Guardians appeared to have an out at the plate on the second runner on left fielder Steven Kwan’s perfect throw home, but Kansas City’s Carter Jensen was able to avoid the tag of Bo Naylor, who had the ball in his glove before Jensen reached the plate. The original out call was overturned after the Royals challenged.
Bibee did not come back out for the fifth and was done after throwing 77 pitches in four innings.
“The first three innings were as sharp as we’ve seen Tanner all year,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He hung a cutter to Witt and missed [with] a fastball to Pasquantino, and that was the beginning of him losing his command. They made him work.”
Bibee said his success through the opening three innings came because he was attacking hitters and mixing his pitches.
“I felt like I was still doing that relatively well in the fourth,” Bibee said. “The [pitch] to Witt wasn’t really executed. They adjusted and I didn’t.”
Perez’s ball that went through Bazzana’s legs after hitting the bag was problematic from a couple of angles. The Royals tied the game on that play, but it also put Bibee in a position where he had to greatly enhance his pitch count to get through the frame.
“It’s a weird play,” Bibee said of the slow grounder that hit the bag. “That’s just baseball. I’m sure everyone has had a ball go through their legs before. I feel like if I was in a better position I could have caught it as well.”
Other than Fry’s two-run homer, the Guardians couldn’t get much done against Royals starter Michael Wacha. Cleveland swung early and often, but had only soft contact to show for it for the most part. Wacha got through seven innings on just 79 pitches.
“[Wacha] knows how to pitch,” Vogt said. “We made a lot of quick outs because he has the late movement.”
Fry did point to one key instance when the Guardians had an opportunity to put some real pressure on Wacha. With Kansas City up 5-2 in the seventh, the Guardians had men at second and third with two outs when Naylor lined out to Pasquantino at first.
“A couple of feet away from being a different game,” Fry said. “But give him credit. He threw really well. He has five or six pitches that he attacks the zone with and he had all of them going tonight.”