(Photo credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images)

The Cleveland Guardians have won enough to compete for the early lead in the middling American League Central. However, they've struggled to win with Tanner Bibee on the mound.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals are amid their most successful stretch of the season -- just as veteran Michael Wacha has cooled off from his strong start on the hill.

Bibee again tries for his first winning decision of 2026, while the visiting Guardians look to keep Wacha and the Royals from a fourth straight victory in Monday's opener of a four-game set.

The Guardians won their season opener with Bibee (0-4, 4.08 ERA) getting the ball, but managed just one run of support while he's been on the mound in losing his next six starts. Though the right-hander, who has posted double-digit win totals in each of his previous three MLB campaigns, has failed to complete more than six innings in any 2026 start, he's yielded more than two earned runs only twice this year.

Bibee surrendered a run, four hits and three walks while striking out six over five innings of a 1-0 home loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday -- the second consecutive start the Guardians failed to score for him.

'Pitchers are playing a very different sport, inside a sport,' Bibee said. 'I feel like for pitchers, especially starting pitchers, you just got to worry about what you're doing.

'You can't affect anything else other than what you're doing on the mound.'

Bibee is 4-0 with a 3.06 ERA in nine career starts against Kansas City, and the Guardians had won six straight outings of his in the series before falling 4-2 at home on April 6. He allowed five hits and a walk through 4 2/3 innings, but just one run.

Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino combined for three hits versus Bibee in that contest. Those two Royals, together, are 17-for-37 against him.

Cleveland won two of three versus Kansas City last month and just took two of three from the Athletics. However, the Royals are 8-3 since dropping eight straight and swept a three-game weekend series at Seattle.

'We don't want to take that for granted. Just keep working,' Kansas City reliever Daniel Lynch IV told Royals.TV.

Wacha (2-2, 3.13 ERA) is 3-2 with a 2.32 ERA in nine career starts against the Guardians, and yielded a solo homer to Steven Kwan and two other hits over seven innings while opposing Bibee in that April matchup.

Wacha allowed three runs and 13 hits over 27 innings while going 2-0 in his first four 2026 starts. However, the right-hander, who turns 35 in July, has given up 10 runs and 15 hits over 10 1/3 in losing back-to-back outings.

He yielded eight hits, four walks and four runs, including a three-run homer, during Wednesday's 5-2 loss to the Athletics.

'You have to keep going and make pitches in the zone, over the plate and get them out that way,' Wacha said. 'It's pitch after pitch that you got to execute and got to command.'

Kwan is 7-for-21 versus Wacha, and a career .310 hitter at Kansas City. His rookie teammate Chase DeLauter went 0-for-2 with a walk against Wacha in April but is 15-for-27 during an eight-game hitting streak.

Pasquantino is batting .188 in 2026, but he's 5-for-14 in May.

--Field Level Media