Shane and José Outduel Shane and Jose as Guardians Top Rays in Game 1

Shane Bieber
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The Wild Card Series opener between the Rays and Guardians was quick-moving from the beginning. Rays ace Shane McClanahan worked around a few weakly hit singles in the early innings. Cleveland starter Shane Bieber’s only baserunner in the first four frames — Ji-Man Choi, who walked — was quickly erased by a Manuel Margot double play. The first five full innings were completed in just an hour and nine minutes despite playoff-length commercial breaks, largely due to the lack of offense and Bieber’s ridiculously quick pace on the mound. The matchup of two premier starters — the AL’s fifth- and seventh-best qualified pitchers by ERA — seemed to be everything fans were hoping for.

Bieber’s start was masterful, matching his MO from the regular season: steal strikes with four-seam fastballs, then get hitters to chase his cutter and slider off the plate. The Rays’ righty-heavy lineup couldn’t figure it out for the entire game, coming up empty on 17 of their 27 swings against those two pitches. Unsurprisingly, every single one of those swinging strikes was located down and to his glove side. Bieber’s impeccable placement of pitches on the outer half was especially noteworthy against the chase-happy Christian Bethancourt and Randy Arozarena, who went a combined 0–6 with five strikeouts, four of which came on breaking balls off the plate. Bieber’s 7.2 innings of one-run ball made for the longest playoff start by a Cleveland pitcher in 15 years and will likely be among the longest starts of any pitcher this postseason. That’s a continuation of the impressive volume he put up in the regular season; he was one of just three AL pitchers to cross the 200-inning threshold.

Shane Bieber's swinging strikes on his cutter and slider in Game 1 of the 2022 ALDS.
Shane Bieber swinging strikes on cutter and slider.

There was one hitter who had Bieber figured out, though. In the third inning, Jose Siri came up to the plate for the first time. After taking a big hack on a 2–0 cutter down the middle, he gave the next pitch, a 91-mph four-seamer up in the zone, a long ride — 394 feet to be exact. Batted balls with that combination of exit velocity and launch angle (103.4 mph, 33 degrees) carry over the fence about 60% of the time, but Siri hit this ball to dead center, the deepest part of Progressive Field, where it settled harmlessly into the glove of Myles Straw, ending a clean inning for Bieber. It was a good pitch from Bieber — Siri’s expected batting average against four-seamers this year was a measly .190, largely due to his swing-and-miss issues on elevated pitches — but one that the Rays centerfielder barreled up, just missing a home run.

The next time Siri came up to the plate, he was ready for the fastball again. Guardians catcher Austin Hedges set up outside, and Bieber hit his spot, but Siri pounced on it, taking it 403 feet the other way for the first opposite-field home run of his career. But that solo blast was all that Tampa Bay would get off of Bieber, who would allow no other hits besides weakly-hit singles by Harold Ramírez and Isaac Paredes. All told, he faced 26 batters, with manager Terry Francona not letting him face Siri for a third time in the top of the eighth. Instead, he opted for a four-out save from Emmanuel Clase, who promptly got Siri to pop out, avoiding a third barrel from the toolsy outfielder. In the ninth, Clase needed just eight pitches to set down the top of the Rays’ lineup in order, preserving the one-run win.

On the other side of the ball, McClanahan had his best stuff going early in the game. His fastball velocity averaged a tick above his season average, and he touched 99 mph with his heater. Despite throwing many four-seamers up in the zone, he did a tremendous job of preventing the Guardians’ lineup from lifting the ball whatsoever through the first five innings; of his first 17 batters, four struck out, one hit an infield popup, and the remaining dozen all hit it on the ground. Four of those grounders ended up going for hits, but all were singles. The only real threat in that span came in the fourth, with consecutive one-out singles by Oscar Gonzalez and Josh Naylor, but they were quickly sent back to the dugout on an inning-ending double play, turned thanks to some fine defensive work by Yandy Díaz. There are probably some bones to pick with Cleveland’s lineup construction (why did Naylor and his .512 OPS against lefties hit fifth but Andrés Giménez and his .887 OPS against southpaws hit seventh?), but McClanahan was shutting the Guardians down from top to bottom. It took until the 18th batter he faced, Straw, for a ball to make it to the outfield.

In recent years, the Rays have made a habit of pulling their starting pitcher early, especially in high-leverage playoff games. While every team treats their starters differently than they did a decade ago, the Rays have dutifully and regularly respected the Third Time Through the Order penalty, starting with Alex Colomé and Drew Smyly over a half-decade ago and continuing to this day. McClanahan’s only full-length postseason start came in Game 1 of the ALDS last year, when he didn’t allow a single run against a strong Red Sox lineup. But even in that outing, he was lifted after facing just 20 batters (remember this number) and 82 pitches.

So when McClanahan started the sixth after facing exactly 18 batters, it came as a small surprise that no one was warming up, even despite his minuscule pitch count of 53. Steven Kwan, batter no. 19, rolled out to shortstop. Amed Rosario, batter no. 20, punched a groundball single through the right side. McClanahan had just tied his career high for batters faced in a postseason game. Up to the plate came batter no. 21: José Ramírez.

In the first inning, Ramírez fouled off two changeups off the plate from McClanahan before whiffing on a low curveball for strike three. In the fourth, he chased another changeup well off the plate, grounding out to the pitcher. In his third plate appearance, he took a first-pitch changeup an inch or two outside for a strike. Two pitches later, Ramírez got another changeup outside, but it caught just a tiny bit of plate. That inch or so after a few good looks at the slowball was all he needed, launching it to right, 389 feet into the seats, for a go-ahead home run. That was all the offense Cleveland needed to take Game 1.

McClanahan ended up going seven innings without allowing any more runs, and midseason acquisition Garrett Cleavinger pitched a scoreless eighth, but Clase shut the door in the ninth. The game concluded just two hours and 17 minutes after first pitch, making it the shortest playoff game of this century in a pitcher’s duel that lived up to the hype.

Tyler Glasnow will start tomorrow’s game for Tampa Bay, though he’ll likely be on a pitch count in just his third start back from injury (his first two went three and 3.2 innings). With the entire Rays bullpen rested, they’ll likely use a wide variety of arms to keep their season alive. The Guardians will turn to Triston McKenzie, who had a 2.96 ERA and 3.59 FIP in 191 regular-season innings. They’ll also be able to turn to well-rested bullpen studs Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak, who weren’t needed in this game thanks to Bieber’s impressive showing.





Kyle is a FanGraphs contributor who likes to write about unique players who aren't superstars. He likes multipositional catchers, dislikes fastballs, and wants to see the return of the 100-inning reliever. He's currently a college student studying math education, and wants to apply that experience to his writing by making sabermetrics more accessible to learn about. Previously, he's written for PitcherList using pitch data to bring analytical insight to pitcher GIFs and on his personal blog about the Angels.

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hairygrimmember
1 year ago

The shortest playoff game of the century!

fjtorres
1 year ago
Reply to  hairygrim

Followed by the longest scoreless playoff game ever.