Cleveland Guardians' Gavin Williams continues to put together the best season of his career.
Gavin Williams wasn’t named an All-Star for the 2026 season, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be surprising whatsoever if the Cleveland Guardians starter ended up getting Cy Young votes come award season in November.
That’s how well and historically Williams has pitched this year, and his latest outing against the San Francisco Giants was just one more example of his dominance on Thursday afternoon.
The Guardians pitcher pitched 5.2 innings and allowed just two earned runs on four hits.
The stat that really sticks out was Williams’ 11 strikeouts, which helped him surpass an impressive season milestone of 200 total punchouts on the season before the calendar flipped to September.
Williams also joined two exclusive groups after this start, too.
First, Williams became the 14th player in Cleveland franchise history to have a season with 200 or more strikeouts. The last pitcher to do so was Shane Bieber in 2019.
As it pertains to the 2026 season, the Guardians pitcher has now tied Toronto Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease with nine outings of 10-or-more strikeouts this season. The duo only trails Milwaukee Brewers phenom Jacob Misiorowski, who has 10 starts of this kind.
Cease and Misiorowski are also the only two other pitchers in baseball with 200 or more strikeouts this season.
Aug 20, 2026; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Guardians pitcher Gavin Williams (32) throws a pitch during the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images“I mean, especially these last couple months, right? I mean he's been going out just dominating,” said manager Stephen Vogt on Thursday.
“[A] couple walks, but you know at the same time he attacked, got the punch outs and 200 [strikeouts] on August 20th is pretty impressive. So, congratulations to Gavin”
Williams admitted that reaching 200 strikeouts was “special” for his career, but he didn’t want to take much credit for hitting this milestone.
When he was asked about his performance postgame Thursday, he gave all the credit to his catchers, Austin Hedges and Patrick Bailey, for actually calling the pitches and putting the game plan together.
Williams now owns a 3.72 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP with a strikeout rate og 31.8 percent (96th percentile) on the season. The Guardians really can’t ask much more of their ace this year.
Still, Cleveland will need Williams to keep pitching like this through September if the Guardians want a chance to get back to the playoffs.
