Guardians stumble early, lose series opener to the Giants

CLEVELAND — Tanner Bibee stumbled early and that's all it took for San Francisco to continue its winning ways against Cleveland. Bibee allowed three runs in the opening inning and the Guardians offense offered little support, as the Giants opened a three-game interleague series with a 4-2 win at Progressive Field. San Francisco improved to 17-5 against the Guardians since 2008, winning six of the seven games in Cleveland. The first-place Guardians, who entered the night with a six-game lead over the Twins, lost for the sixth time in nine games, scoring three runs or fewer in each of the six defeats. Cleveland outhit San Francisco 11-6 but couldn't deliver in the clutch, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position — a situation the Guardians have flourished in this season. "It was one of those nights where we had traffic all night," manager Stephen Vogt said. "It felt like we had two guys on base every single inning — (hit into) three double plays. It was just one of those nights that we didn't get the big hit. Credit to their pitchers, they made pitches when they needed to. "These nights happen. It's frustrating. I'm sure our guys are frustrated, but the thing is we were putting pressure on them all night. Just couldn't quite come through." Cleveland put the first two on in the ninth inning, but Jose Ramirez struck out and Josh Naylor hit into a game-ending double play. First pitch was delayed 26 minutes by rain and Bibee, who entered his 18th start on a three-game winning streak and victories in five of his last seven outings, still didn't look ready. He allowed the first three batters to reach, walking two and throwing 32 pitches in a three-run first for San Francisco that was capped by Michael Conforto's two-run double over the head of right fielder Daniel Schneemann. But Bibee bounced back from there, striking out five straight batters and retiring eight consecutive overall after the Conforto double. "He struggled with his command a little bit in the first," Vogt said. "They made him work. They got some big hits. They capitalized with people in scoring position. But I thought he settled in pretty well after that. They just got his pitch count up and they made him work all night. So, a couple of efficient innings, but the first got away from him, and it's hard to go deep into a game after that." "I was missing a lot of my spots and they weren't really biting on stuff," Bibee said. "You gotta make adjustments somehow, and I feel like after that first inning I made some adjustments but the pitch count was just way too up there. "I really just didn't throw strikes the first inning. I think, going into the second inning, I was at 35 pitches, and it's not a good recipe to go deep into a game." The Guardians went scoreless against two pitchers over the first three innings before Naylor started the fourth with a homer into the bushes behind the wall in center. Naylor also had a hand in Cleveland cutting the deficit to 4-2 in the sixth, leading off with a single and scoring on Andres Gimenez's sacrifice fly to the warning track in right. The Guardians bullpen — Tim Herrin, Cade Smith, Sam Hentges and Nick Sandlin — kept Cleveland within striking distance, retiring 12 of the final 14 batters with eight strikeouts and two walks. The relief corps leads the majors with a 2.57 ERA. Steven Kwan entered the night batting a MLB-leading .367, but he went 1-for-5 to drop his average to .363. He struck out for the 22nd time in 60 games (269 plate appearances). It was a rough night for shortstop Gabriel Arias, who went 0-for-2 and committed an error that contributed to the Giants' fourth run in the fourth. He struck out with two on in the second and hit into an inning-ending double play with two more on in the fourth. "Any time you give a good team extra chances, they're going to take advantage of it," Vogt said. A crowd of 36,769 fans was on hand for San Francisco's third trip to Cleveland, accounting for the eighth sellout of the season. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.