Bieber fans 14, leadsTribe to 2-0 win in opener.

Cleveland Indians twenty-five-year-old-right-handed starting pitcher Shane Bieber fires one of his 97 pitches he threw in his record-breaking opening day 14 strikeout performance against the Kansas City Royals. Photo by Cleveland Indians and Mandy Bell/MLB.com.

John Butler

jbutle58@lakers.mercyhurst.edu

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Clevelanders needed Cleveland Indians baseball more than ever before on Friday night because of the current ever changing world we’re all living in due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. MLB suspended all team operations from Spring Training in mid March. And Americans were without a main distraction and coping mechanism that they used previously when times got very dark. Baseball was played during the Influenza Pandemic. World War I. The Great Depression. Word War II. And played a key role in bringing a sense of normalcy to a not so normal world following the September Eleventh Attacks. Now it’ll again play a vital part in providing Americans with a distraction even if it only lasts three hours.

The Indians have not hosted a game at Progressive Field since Sunday, September 22, 2019, when they battled the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday Night Baseball. And three-hundred and seven days later it’s now Friday, July 24, 2020, at an empty Progressive Field with recorded stadium sounds and cardboard cutouts of fans put around the ballpark while the players on the field probably could hear Cleveland Indians Radio Play-by-Play Announcer Tom Hamilton call the game from the booth. For players, fans, and MLB it was a welcoming sight to see it all unfold on your television set. And boy did it unfold for Cleveland’s twenty-five-year-old-right-handed starting pitcher Shane Bieber in the opener.

Bieber entered 2020 with his break out sophomore season in the rearview mirror where he by put up those numbers: WAR 4.6, 15-8, ERA 3.28, CG 3, SHO 2, IP 214.1 SO 259 WHIP 1.054. “Not Justin” also made his first MLB AL All-Star team that year where he took home MVP honors by striking out the side in the fifth. When the season closed Bieber finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting behind Charlie Morton, Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander.

In the off-season, Corey Kluber who was his phenomenal teammate and pitching mentor for two seasons got traded to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Delino DeShields Jr. and Emmanuel Clase in mid-December. The latter received an eighty game suspension and Clase has been banned for all sixty games this season. Losing Kluber to Texas hurt the ballclub, pitching rotation, but more importantly it ended a short two year friendship and pitchermanship between “Klubot” and Bieber. Even though it was short lived, Bieber made the most of it by listening, watching, and learning from one of the best pitchers and pitching mentors in Kluber.

It payed dividends for Bieber in 2019 where he emulated Kluber‘s hard work ethic, phenomenal poise, and stoicness each time he pitched when “Klubot” was put on the injured listed in mid-May after fracturing his forearm. Bieber stepped up to save the rotation with the help of fellow 2016 Draftees Aaron Civale, and Zach Plesac. Kluber was the mentor to Bieber. And Bieber is now mentoring Civale and Plesac. The Indians have moved from one era to the next in regards to their starting pitching which is now all about youth and a veteran — Carlos Carrasco.

Bieber went out their and showed the rest of the rotation how it’s done by tossing six dominate shutout innings and striking out fourteen Kansas City Royals. He started out shaky in the first inning due to making his first opening day start, but got out of it unscathed. From the second frame onward Bieber struck out Royal after Royal after Royal. He struck out the side in the second. And at one point he struck out twelve of sixteen batters from the top of the first to the top of the fifth. Besides, his troubles to begin the game, the only other problem arose in the fifth. With Nicky Lopez at second and Whit Merrifield at first and two down in came the dangerous Adalberto Mondesí. Bieber battled it back to a 3-2 count and got him on a nasty knuckle curve getting him out of a big jam.

The Indians got on the board with two runs in the home half. Danny Duffy hit Jordan Luplow with a pitch and then got Domingo Santana to pop up to Ryan McBroom at first. 2019 Gold Glove catcher and Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award Winner Roberto Pérez singled extending the inning for Oscar Mercado. Mercado lined a ball back up the middle by the reaching Mondesí sending Luplow to score the games first run. Then, offseason acquisition César Hernández from the Philadelphia Phillies doubled home Bebo in the fifth. This made it 2-0 with the timely hitting by Bebo, Mercado, and Hernández. The score held up and it was enough for a much needed win to honor all the fans that support the Indians usually with a sellout crowd at Progressive Field on opening day.

In the next frame, Bieber struck out Alex Gordon for his fourteen of the game to become one of a short list of pitchers in home opener history that have struck out that many in one outing. And the most since Randy Johnson struck out fourteen in 1996. The franchise record had been shared with Gary “Ding Dong” for half a frame in the fifth. Bieber has more than Sam McDowell, Corey Kluber, CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Justin Masterson. But it’s done by Bieber. A college walk-on at the University of California, Santa Barbra California is the author of the arguably the greatest opening day pitching performance in club history.

Both bullpens kept each other in check for the rest of the evening. Tyler Zuber made his MLB debut for the Royals. Zuber pitched well by not allowing a run in two innings of solid work giving new Kansas City manager Mike Matheny something positive to take out of being shutout. Band Hand notched his first save of 2020 but it was not the automatic Hand we saw before the All-Star Break last season as the left hander had to make twenty pitches to finish off the Royals.

With the win the Indians move to a first place tie with the Minnesota Twins. For the Royals, they took the loss and are tied for third place with the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers in the AL Central.

These two teams will meet again tomorrow for the middle game of this three game weekend series with the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians. Terry Francona will send Mike Clevinger for his first go around in 2020 while Matheny will counter with Brady Singer making his major league debut. First pitch is set for 5:10 pm. SportsTimeOhio and WTAM/WMMS will carry the game.