The Cleveland Guardians officially lost their first series of the 2026 season after dropping two of three games to the Atlanta Braves over the weekend.

Cleveland had a chance to win the set on Sunday evening with a rubber match, but ended up on the wrong side of a lopsided 13-1 loss.

Pitching or hitting, nothing went the Guardians’ way in the series finale, and Stephen Vogt shared his thoughts and takeaways after the game.  

Tanner Bibee didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday night; there’s really no other way around it. Cleveland’s starting pitcher went 4.2 innings of work, gave up 11 hits, and allowed eight earned runs.

Vogt thought that Bibee “never got into a rhythm.”

“I thought he got himself into a jam there in the first, but wiggled his way out and then just seemed like he was having trouble really landing everything.. just one of those nights where Tanner just didn't have his best stuff.”

Cleveland’s skipper also pointed out that Braves hitters weren’t biting or swinging at anything later in counts. This caused Bibee’s pitch count to climb, and with that, gave Atlanta more opportunities for pitches in the zone.

Vogt continued that these types of nights happen from time to time, but doesn’t think that it is indicative of Bibee as a pitcher.

“We all know Tanner when he's on, he's missing bats. He's getting those put away, so it just seemed like from the get-go tonight, just didn't have his sharpest stuff.”

Despite what the final score shows, the Guardians had the opportunities to score runs. Cleveland ended up with nine hits and had traffic on base, which felt like all night. However, they were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Vogt was actually happy with how his team put strain on Atlanta’s starter, Chris Sale, but the future Hall of Famer pitched better than Cleveland hit, and got out of the jams.

“Really happy with our at-bats off of him. I thought we didn't chase a whole lot of sliders underneath, and didn't chase a ton of fastballs up,” explained Vogt. 

“I thought we made him come into the zone, and we squared some balls up, we made some loud outs… We put a lot of pressure on him throughout the entire outing. We just weren't able to get that big hit with runners in scoring position.”

The best thing for the Guardians to do after a loss like this one is to turn the page and focus on their next series. Cleveland will open up another interleague series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday. 

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