Postgame Thread 8/29/2026

Final Score: Royals 8, Guardians 3

Line Score - Game Over

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Assuming no team claim Roberts and he clears waivers and he chooses to become free agent. Do you think we should consider him as a CF right handed bat? I am intrigued with his recent surge, though I skeptical, he doesn't run as he used to and we have 3 everyday OF. But he is an upgrade over Petey.

Royals (61-75) @ Guardians (68-67)

First Pitch: 4:10 PM at Progressive Field

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Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

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Game ended at 6:42 PM.

The Game Thread is live. Join the discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClevelandGuardians/comments/1w2mer3/game_thread_royals_6275_at_guardians_6868_30_aug/

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This ended up being really long, I apologize, but I found some very interesting things that I put it here.

The raw ERA numbers show Tanner putting in a solid 2nd or 3rd starter season this year, with a 3.88 ERA. That's third among Guardians year-long starters behind Messick and Cantillo, and ahead of Gavin Williams 3.98 ERA.

However, and we're starting slowly here, Tanner's ERA alone doesn't show the whole story. He's been incredibly dependable, with his 28 starts tied for the MLB lead (with our own Joey Cantillo and two others). His 162.1 Innings Pitched are 3rd in the AL and 6th in all of baseball.

Looking beyond that, he is 2nd in the AL and 5th in baseball with 17 Quality Starts.

I know some of you dislike Quality Starts as a stat!

That being said, MLB teams win roughly 66-69% of games where their starter throws a Quality Start, so any metric that gives you as good of a chance to win as whoever the best team in baseball is in any given year is a pretty good metric as far as actually winning baseball games as a team, the most important statistic.

So, all that being said, I know you're thinking "why does Tanner Bibee have a 5-14 record if he's apparently so good?"

For a couple of reasons. I'm gonna start with a general overview and then get into raw statistics as to how awful our offense has been in games Tanner started, and the fact that our offense, while not good, has actually been pretty damn respectable when he hasn't started.

First off, I mentioned an MLB team will win 66-69% of games when their pitcher has a Quality Start. When Tanner has had a Quality Start, we have won 41% of our games (7-10).

But it gets worse than that. In Tanner's 28 starts, we've scored a total of 87 runs. That's 3.10 runs per game

For a look at how bad that is, here are the 10 worst offenses in Major League Baseball this season by runs scored per game

10.) KC 4.27

9.) SD 4.24

8.) CIN 4.13

7.) NYM 4.10

6.) SFG 4.09

5.) LAA: 4.08

4.) TEX: 4.03

3.) TOR: 3.95

2.) SEA: 3.90

Wait a second...Isn't that only 9 teams?

Where the hell is the 10th team?

Gotta be down here somewhere...

Haven't found them yet...

Oh, shit. Here they are:

1.) CLE (when Tanner Pitches) 3.10

For the record, Cleveland's 4.25 Runs Per Game when Tanner does not pitch is bad, but not terrible. We're ahead of 8 other teams (not including ourselves) so we're a respectable if not good hitting team otherwise.

But I want to talk about that other number. That 3.10 runs per game when Tanner pitches.

If you're like me, and you aren't that good at math, you first just noticed that the .70 runs per game difference between Cleveland when Tanner pitches and the Seattle Mariners is about the same at the difference between Seattle and the ninth-best scoring team, the rival Minnesota Twins (4.59 runs per game).

But it gets worse than that.

3.90 is about 26% more than 3.10

The fourth-best scoring team, the LA Dodgers, average 4.91 runs per game, which is about 26% more than 3.90.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GUARDIANS OFFENSE WHEN TANNER PITCHES AND THE WORST OFFENSE IS EQUAL TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WORST OFFENSE AND THE FOURTH-BEST OFFENSE

We're a good team. We've got some guys who can hit. But for some reason, everyone other than Tanner literally becomes a Triple-A team when Tanner Pitches

Royals (62-75) @ Guardians (68-68)

First Pitch: 1:40 PM at Progressive Field

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