CLEVELAND (AP) — For one inning, it appeared as if all the breaks were going the way of Cleveland starting pitcher Tanner Bibee on Sunday.
Despite giving up a leadoff homer for the second straight game, the right-hander left with a lead for the first time in 13 starts this season and finally got run support as the Guardians led the Boston Red Sox 4-3 going into the seventh inning.
Instead, Bibee had a front row seat as the bullpen had one of its worst innings of the year as Boston rallied for a 9-4 win.
That put Bibee at the top of a couple of lists no starting pitcher wants to join.
Boston’s six runs in the seventh inning en route to a 9-4 victory made Bibee the 12th opening day starter since 1976 to make at least 10 starts and not earn a win before June, according to Sportradar.
He has the most starts without a win before June and is the fourth with at least 12. The others were Colorado’s Kyle Freeland (2025), Miami’s José Ureña (2018) and Atlanta’s Carl Morton (1976).
Bibee is also the first pitcher in Cleveland’s 125-year franchise history to go winless in his first 13 starts.
“I’ve said this in the past. I don’t have any control over it. All I can do is go out there, try to throw up some zeros and whatever happens, happens,” said Bibee, who is 0-7.
Bibee's seven losses are tied for the second most among among the 12 opening day starters. His 4.57 is the fourth lowest.
“Wins and losses don’t matter for starting pitchers. It’s not a stat that means anything. So I know he’s not worried about it and we’re definitely not worried about it,” catcher Austin Hedges said.
Bibee bounced back after Jarren Duran connected on the fifth pitch of the game and drove it into the right-field stands, the fourth time he gave up a leadoff homer this season. He allowed only one hit in the second through fourth innings before the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the fifth. Mickey Gasper tied it at 2-all with a sacrifice fly to drive in Marcelo Mayer and Wilyer Abreu’s RBI single gave Boston a 3-2 lead.
However, the Guardians rallied.
Cleveland scored twice in the bottom of the fifth on José Ramírez's RBI double after Boston left fielder Masataka Yoshida lost track of the fly ball in the sun. Chase DeLauter’s single drove in Ramírez. They loaded the bases with two outs when Stuart Fairchild struck out and unsuccessfully challenged the called third strike.
That left the Guardians without a challenge for the rest of the game, which would come back to haunt them.
Bibee retired the Red Sox in order in the sixth. He threw 90 pitches, including 62 strikes, and allowed three runs and six hits with five strikeouts and one walk.
The Guardians bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. Tim Herrin seemed poised to escape a bases-loaded jam with a fastball on the outer corner to Abreu on a full count, but home plate umpire Austin Jones called it a ball, allowing Connor Wong to score and tie it at 4-all.
The inning unraveled as Boston had three straight hits and added five more runs to take control of the game.
Cleveland has the third-worst challenge rate on ABS at 44.4%. The league average is 52.7%.
“I mean, it’s frustrating, but that’s on us. We shouldn’t have lost our challenges. It’s what they’re there for, and we’ve got to take accountability and be better at it,” Hedges said.
Bibee was a fifth-round pick by Cleveland in the 2021 amateur draft. He went 22-12 with a 3.25 ERA in his first two seasons in the majors and was second in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2023. He was also the third Cleveland pitcher since 2000 with at least 10 wins in each of his first two seasons in the big leagues. Hall of Famer CC Sabathia (2001-02) and Shane Bieber (2018-19) are the others.
However, Bibee is 12-18 with a 4.33 ERA in 43 starts since signing a five-year, $48 million contract during spring training last year.
“We haven’t scored a lot of runs when Tanner’s been on the mound, even in some of the starts in which he’s pitched exceptionally well,” general manager Chris Antonetti said. “I think as we look forward, we’ll start to see more of those outings in which he’s pitching more effectively than maybe some of those other hiccup.”
Bibee remains confident he can turn his season around. Manager Stephen Vogt said Bibee’s changeup showed improvement after he allowed seven runs in three innings on Monday against Washington.
He has six quality starts this season with Sunday's being the fourth in his past five games.
“You want to win games, but I feel like it’s important to know pitching; you’re playing a completely different sport than the other nine people in the field. So it’s just figuring out what the kind of self-evaluation of it,” Bibee said.
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Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee (28) walks back to the mound after giving up a solo home run to Boston Red Sox' Jarren Duran, back left, during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boson Red Sox, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Tough-on-crime lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and peace-builder Iván Cepeda were leading the vote count in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday, and are to face off in a runoff in the South American nation later in June.
De la Espriella — a newcomer known as “El Tigre, or “The Tiger” — has sought to portray himself as a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, vowing to crack down on criminal groups.
He leads the race with nearly 44% of the votes, Colombia’s electoral authorities said late Sunday, but fell short of the 50% needed to win in the first round.
Second is Cepeda, a progressive senator and an ally of Colombia's outgoing President Gustavo Petro who has promised to carry on a fraught push for “total peace.” Cepeda scooped up just under 41% of the vote.
Paloma Valencia, a candidate for Colombia’s establishment party who pitched herself as a centrist, got less than 7% of the vote.
While Cepeda coasted comfortably ahead in polls throughout the campaign, he was neck-and-neck with de la Espriella on Sunday night, which is likely to spell trouble for the June runoff, where de la Espriella is likely to scoop up many of the voters that threw their support behind Valencia.
De la Espriella and his supporters celebrated on Sunday night at their campaign headquarters in the coastal city of Barranquilla.
“In 21 days we’re going to change the history of Colombia,” he said triumphantly.
Voters across Latin America are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies aimed at addressing the root issues of conflict, such as lack of opportunities for young people and corruption. Instead, voters have increasingly turned to candidates promising heavy-handed security crackdowns.
The polarized vote comes as the Trump administration is playing a more aggressive role in Latin America than any U.S. government in decades, placing mounting pressure on countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador to crack down on crime.
The election has also underscored two sharply diverging visions for the future of peace in a country marked by years of conflict.
On one side, Cepeda has promised to continue Petro’s progressive agenda and a largely failed effort of trying to negotiate peace pacts with armed groups, following a plan that’s likely to sharply contrast with Trump’s vision for Latin America.
On the other side, de la Espriella has promised to fiercely crack down on criminal groups and build 10 mega-prisons, following in a similar vein as El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in his war on gangs, which has fueled accusations of human rights abuses.
“Today’s election isn’t just important for us, it’s important for all of Latin America,” said Juan Acevedo, a 62-year-old sociologist walking out of a voting station in Colombia’s capital on Sunday morning. “Whoever wins here will suggest to the region if progressive policies will continue or if things are going to return to the right.”
The election — 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — as seen as a referendum on Petro’s policies.
The deal a decade ago had offered hope to break the nation’s vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government. But violence has since roared back, in part because armed groups have taken advantage of peace negotiations with Petro's government to make territorial gains.
That came to a head in the lead-up to the election. Criminal groups have increasingly launched drone strikes, armed attacks have plagued the race and last June, 39-year-old politician and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was fatally shot at a political rally. Still, Cepeda and Petro have maintained strong support among many because of progressive policies pushed forward under Petro, such as boosting the minimum wage.
Both de la Espriella and Valencia have touted their affinity for Trump, though Valencia’s electoral loss dealt another blow to a once powerful political current known as Uribismo, indicating that conservative voters are turning away from more traditional political parties in favor of Bukele and de la Espriella’s punitive populism.
Maria Eugenia, a 57-year-old seamstress who was stitching a pair of jeans on Friday in downtown Bogotá, Colombia's capital, said she welcomed an all-out offensive on an expanding slate of criminal groups, regardless of the human cost.
While she approved of Petro’s pushes to improve the country's medical infrastructure, she said she was voting for de la Espriella because violence in rural areas of the country has gotten out of hand. She said negotiating peace pacts was simply “rewarding” armed groups.
“Of course, whenever you come down with a heavy hand, there’s always going to be debate,” she said. “But some people are going to have to fall to clean up what needs to be cleaned.”
Others, like Acevedo, the sociologist, said a security crackdown such as the one promoted by de la Espriella meant a return to past military campaigns that he said only reinforced Colombia's cycle of violence.
He said he supports Cepeda, adding that while the government hasn't done a perfect job — failing to pass ambitious reforms and follow through on promises to reduce violence — it was better to continue pushing forward with their political coalition's efforts to take a different approach in addressing the country's violence.
He added that his main critique of Petro's administration was the power grabs made by criminal groups as they negotiated with the government. He said he hoped that if Cepeda won, he would strike a better balance between negotiating peace and maintaining control over those groups.
“We're a country that has lived through 60 years of conflict,” Acevedo said. “The danger here is that we return to the times where everyone is saying that the only way to solve our problems is with bullets and more war.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Election results showing presidential candidates Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement and Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition advancing to a runoff election are projected at Cepeda's campaign headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement celebrate after the candidate advanced to a runoff election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Police frisk voters arriving to a polling station during presidential election in Silvia, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Supporters of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition react as presidential election results are announced in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement celebrate election results in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement salutes after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
A voter marks a ballot during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition gather outside the polling station where he voted during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda of the ruling Historic Pact coalition gestures to supporters after voting during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters check polling information during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
President Gustavo Petro shows a ballot during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters line up at a polling station during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement depart a polling station after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Soldiers patrol as voters arrive at a polling station during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Electoral workers set up a voting center in preparation for Sunday's presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man rides his motorcycle past the ruins of homes destroyed five months earlier in an attack by dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Buenos Aires, Cauca, Colombia, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Presidential candidate Sen. Paloma Valencia of the Democratic Center party waves supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement and his running mate Jose Manuel Restrepo, left, raise their fit from behind a bullet proof booth during a campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Sen. Ivan Cepeda, presidential candidate of the ruling Historic Pact coalition, speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
