Gavin Williams strikes out 11 in win over Giants

In terms of following up his 11-strikeout effort against the Giants, Williams did not. He gave up six hits while getting just four outs, and two of those hits went over the fence. It’s a disappointing outing regardless of the situation, but after dominating for so much of that last outing against San Francisco, and then facing one of the worst teams in baseball, it just adds to said disappointment. He’ll get a chance to bounce back against the Blue Jays next week.

Williams was in trouble from the get-go in this start. The Padres put runners on the corners in each of the first two innings, but he found a way to wriggle out of each jam. Then, Xander Bogaerts finally got his squad on the board in the fourth when he launched a hanging sweeper from Williams for a two-run shot. Chaos followed in the fifth when Williams gave up a home run, two singles, and a walk to the first four batters and was pulled after a two-run double that came shortly thereafter. He struggled to command his fastball as that pitch had just a 39% zone rate and was forced to rely on his breaking stuff more than often. Knowing that, the Padres began to sit on those pitches and made him pay. One of the hottest pitchers in the league entering this start, let’s hope it’s merely a bump in the road. He’s scheduled to face the Giants at home next time out.

Williams allowed just three hits, and he blanked the White Sox until allowing a pair of runs in the sixth inning. He struck out seven, and 68-of-102 pitches landed for strikes in an outing that was impressive even with a less-than-spectacular ending. Williams has a respectable 3.55 ERA on the campaign, and he’ll be back on the bump Friday against the Padres.

Williams’ day might have been even better, but a rain delay chased him with two out in the sixth at 89 pitches. The right-hander sat 98.3 mph on his four-seam fastball with elite extension, as always. He also posted an absurd 24 percent swinging strike rate overall and 36 percent CSW while getting into two-strike counts on 79 percent of batters faced. Williams has now allowed just two runs on six hits over 19 2/3 innings in his last three starts while striking out 33 and walking two. It’s hard to find a pitcher throwing the ball better right now, so you have to just keep rolling him out there.

Williams gave up a solo homer in the first and then wild pitched the second run home in the fifth and that was enough to keep him out of the win column with the Guardians getting shut out. What Williams did do tonight was fan at least 11 batters for the fourth straight outing. He’s just the 24th pitcher (13th different) in major league history to accomplish that. Oddly enough, three of the previous five pitched for Cleveland, Corey Kluber (five in a row in 2017), Trevor Bauer (2018) and Shane Bieber (2021) joined Chris Sale (five in 2018) and Gerrit Cole (five in 2019) in doing it in the last 10 years. Pedro Martinez holds the record, doing it in eight straight starts in 1999. Williams could next face the D’backs on Sunday or the Mets on Tuesday, depending on how the Guardians want to line things up with off days Thursday and Monday.

He allowed just a pair of singles in the process and recorded an immaculate inning in the fourth, striking out Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell on nine pitches. Williams’ secondaries were downright nasty today, as he generated 18 whiffs on 39 swings between his sweeper and curveball. It was a good bounceback from a five-earned run clunker against the Pirates in his last start that was fueled by three homers, and Williams moved his ERA on the season back under 4 with the effort. He’ll take his talents to Great American Ballpark next week.

Williams notched his fifth double-digit strikeout performance of the season but was burned by the long ball in this one, serving up three homers to a suddenly red-hot Pirates lineup. He managed to shake off an early two-run blast from Jacob Gonzalez before giving up a two-run shot to Esmerlyn Valdez and a solo tater to Nick Gonzalez in the sixth. The result was a bizarre-looking pitching line where he somehow managed to dominate for most of his outing while still ending up being saddled with a loss. He’ll square off against the Twins on Thursday in his next outing.

The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday where the conditions are expected to be much improved. Expect Friday’s scheduled starters — Gavin Williams and Jared Jones — to pitch at some point on Saturday.

Parker Messick will get some extra rest after throwing a scoreless second inning in the All-Star Game. He’ll presumably face the Twins or Monday or Tuesday, with Slade Cecconi starting the other game.

Williams struck out 11 and walked one while throwing 71 percent of his pitches for strikes. He got ahead with his four-seamer and sinker and then had lots of success putting hitters away with a sweeper that had a 26 percent swinging strike rate. Unless Statcast updates its data, this will have been the first start that Williams didn’t use his cutter, which could be why his four-seam usage was up 13 percent. Regardless, he was fully comfortable with his arsenal today and looked great. He gets a tougher matchup against the Pirates after the break.