The Guardians bullpen blew a 3-2 lead against Boston on Sunday afternoon, extending Tanner Bibee‘s winless streak to 13 games, a franchise record to open the season.
Here’s Cleveland’s all-time leaderboard of winless streaks to open the year:
- 2026 Bibee, 13
- 2021 Sam Hentges, 12
- 1982 Rick Waits, 12
- 1962 Sam McDowell, 12
- 1914 Guy Morton, 12
- 2021 J.C. Mejia, 11
It’s also worth mentioning Scott Elarton, who had a streak of 16 winless starts in 2004 – eight with the Rockies and then eight more after being acquired by Cleveland.
Bibee hasn’t been great, but he also doesn’t deserve to be winless in 13 starts.
Hentges, Waits, McDowell and Mejia all had ERAs of 5.50 or worse.
Bibee’s ERA sits at 4.57, though Morton’s inability to win a game despite a 3.24 ERA was even more baffling.
The MLB record technically belongs to Ryan Stanek, who had separate winless streaks of 27 and 29 games for Tampa, but those were as an opener. The real record is 23 games by Oakland’s Matt Keough in 1979.