CLEVELAND — Tanner Bibee struck out a career-high 12 in six innings, and the Cleveland Guardians routed the Seattle Mariners 8-0 on Wednesday in a battle of division leaders.
Josh Naylor contributed two home runs and added four RBIs to support the work of Bibee (5-2), who had more than one strikeout in each of the first five innings. His work included three hits and a walk.
The right-hander struck out 11 in his previous start, June 12 at Cincinnati. That was his first game with at least a dozen strikeouts in the Major Leagues.
Steven Kwan hit a two-run homer, while José Ramírez and Bo Naylor each had two hits for Cleveland, which is five games ahead of Minnesota in the American League Central Division and has won 22 of 31 games in the Progressive Field this campaign.
West-leading Seattle lost for the second time in 10 games and is 17-6 since May 26. Both manager Scott Servais and shortstop JP Crawford were ejected in the fifth inning by Doug Eddings, who had struck out the player.
Bryan Woo (3-1) allowed three runs in four innings.
For the Mariners, the Dominicans Julio Rodríguez 3-1, Víctor Robles 1-0.
For the Guardians, Venezuelan Andrés Giménez went 0-3 with one run scored. Dominican José Ramírez was 2-for-4 with one run scored and one RBI.
