AL DIVISION SERIES: TIGERS VS GUARDIANS

October 9, 2024

Tanner Bibee

Comerica Park

Cleveland Guardians

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. Tanner, you said you had a lead block feeling in your stomach leading up to Game 1. Has anything changed now that you've gotten that out of the way going into your next start?

TANNER BIBEE: Yeah. I think a lot less nerves for sure, but I think at this point just trying to go out there and win a ballgame at this point. Don't really care how I do it, don't really care how we do it. Just trying to go out there and win. That's kind of the whole point of this year.

Q. Did you learn anything about yourself in that first start that maybe surprised you or something you can carry forward to tomorrow?

TANNER BIBEE: I feel like just after a rocky first inning, I feel like earlier on this year kind of would have let that get to me. But I feel like in the last outing I was able to get through the rocky first inning and kind of settle down and settle in.

I feel like being able to do that in a postseason is extremely important because there's a lot of good hitters on every single team you're going to face, and they're going to wear you down. So being able to settle down after that I feel like is pretty important.

Q. Obviously going through your rookie year last year, knowing everything that comes with that. Now to see Cade do everything he did this year but now it's also translating into the postseason. Just how impressive is that for maybe people who wouldn't understand that from afar for a rookie to be able to handle his emotions as well as he has?

TANNER BIBEE: Cade's kind of a robot. Kind of comes natural to him. What he's done I think is a lot more impressive than what I did last year. Just on a contending team, he's been in every single role possible, and he's succeeded in every single role. He's punched out over a hundred people as a reliever. I don't know how many people have done that. Probably not a lot.

And it's super impressive. I feel like if you saw him in Lake County in Akron and Columbus, you'd have no doubt. Like once he ironed some things out, there was no doubt he was going to come up here in make an impact.

Q. How important is it with your pitch mix or whatever, just giving a team like this something else to think about since they've seen you so much?

TANNER BIBEE: I think in the Major Leagues, I mean, through my two years, I think it's super important to have -- obviously they know your mix. Everyone knows your mix. It's just figuring out how to use it, when to use it, what person.

I mean, it varies from game to game. Tomorrow is going to be the sixth time I've faced these guys this year. So I'm not the same pitcher I was in start one. I'm not the same pitcher I was in start three against these guys.

So I feel like it's just -- I mean, Cobb was telling me through his 27 years he's been in the Big Leagues that he's not the same pitcher he was when he started to where he is now, and even in between that, he's evolved.

Q. Tanner, was there a moment in Game 1 where you just kind of took a deep breath and said, this is just another ballgame, or did that feeling ever leave you?

TANNER BIBEE: I think -- I mean, no. I mean, these games are pretty important. But one thing I try to do was when I walked in from the bullpen was to try to walk as slow as possible. I was told that, just to, one, take everything in; two, not to speed myself up. And I feel like taking everything in, kind of just walking as slow as I can I feel like kind of slowed the day down a little bit for me.

I feel like I have a tendency when things get going bad like early on in the year is when I sped up, got upset, emotional, whatever. So I feel like that was a good way to make it as slow as possible, kind of like an important game, just another game.

Q. We saw Tarik Skubal come off the mound a couple of times in Game 2, emotional, firing the crowd up and all that. Actually a little bit of back and forth, give and take with the Progressive Field crowd. What about playing here are you looking forward to the challenge of the environment and just the Detroit fans versus the Cleveland fans and all that?

TANNER BIBEE: I feel like in the postseason no matter where you go, especially with these teams left, it's going to be a really awesome atmosphere wherever you go. I mean, the fans here want to see their team win, and our job is to win in a hostile environment. So, I mean, I think I'm just going to do whatever I can to win, see what Cobb does today and see how I can feed off that and how to respond to that.

Q. Tanner, when we talked to you postgame after Game 1, you shared with us that you spent some time with your mental coach trying to get ready for the game. How much do you do analyzing a start after the fact with that coach, and if you did, what would you be willing to share about your Game 1 performance?

TANNER BIBEE: Yeah. So pretty much what I do is I look at purely execution. I feel like -- like if I give up a home run on an executed pitch, like that's a good thing, I did what I was trying to do, and obviously sometimes it's going to happen and sometimes guys are going to take balls right down the middle, but that's not executed. But, I mean, so I think I go through every single pitch, whether executed or not, yes, no, go through the whole game. And one thing I want to be able to be good at is 0-0 strikes and 1-1 counts, being able to get ahead, get ahead, put them away. That's pretty much the goal and just whether they're executed.