N&N: Backed by Tanner Bibee, Guardians offense schools KC pitching

Morning N&N for September 4

Tanner Bibee was on the hill for the Guardians last night and pitched like an ace.

Braany Rocchio brought in the team’s 1st run, scoring Will Brennan with a sac fly and Bibee would not need much more.

The Guards added a 2nd run in the top of the 5th and when the 5th inning ended, 11 Royals in a row had been set down by Bibee.

That streak ended to start the 6th when Thomas Pham doubled for KC’s 2nd hit. This was the start of a major jam for Bibee—bases loaded with nobody out. But he worked out of it while only allowing 1 run to score.

In the 7th, Royals reliever Sam Long allowed leadoff hitter Bo Naylor to reach. Then Rocchio tried and failed to bunt the runner over. And you won’t believe what happened next. Rocchio... homered!?!? to move that runner very far around the bases and make the game 4-1 Guardians.

Even though half of them have been off of pitchers soon revealed to be injured, Rocchio somehow has 7 home runs this season.

Kyle Manzardo reached base in each of his first 3 ABs in this game. KC finally retired him in the top of the 8th, but they allowed 3 runs to his friends to fall down 7-1. The KC pen has been a major weakness in the past week or two, following a brief spell of effectiveness after the trade deadline.

Around baseball

• Deadline addition Trevor Richards, already DFA’d by the Twins who traded for him, was outrighted to AAA.
• It might be useful to know that the average MLB team gets 21% of its revenue from local TV.
• The White Sox DFA’d LGFT Touki Toussaint.
• and their manager knows words