Shane Bieber’s long-awaited return to Major League Baseball couldn’t have gone much better. The 2020 American League Cy Young winner dominated in his Blue Jays debut Friday night at loanDepot Park, striking out nine batters while allowing just one run on two hits in six impressive innings as Toronto defeated the Marlins, 5-2.
Bieber stepped on a big league mound for the first time in 478 days. The 30-year-old right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in April 2024 after making just two starts for Cleveland last season, in which he threw 12 scoreless innings.
The Guardians sent Bieber – a 2016 fourth-round pick out of UC Santa Barbara – to the Blue Jays at this year’s trade deadline in exchange for right-handed prospect Khal Stephen while he was still completing his rehabilitation. Bieber made seven rehab starts between Cleveland and Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, posting a 1.86 ERA with 37 strikeouts across 29 innings.
Bieber had a 3-0 lead before he even threw a pitch thanks to Daulton Varsho’s RBI double and Ty France’s two-run single in the first inning.
Bieber looked sharp immediately. He struck out Xavier Edwards with an 82.6 mph knuckle curve and fanned Jakob Marsee with an 89.3 mph changeup in the first inning.
His only mistake came in the second inning when Javier Sanoja connected on a 93.7 mph fastball for a solo home run after a 10-pitch battle. Bieber then retired the side in order for the next three innings, striking out the side in the fourth. Varsho extended Toronto’s lead to 5-1 with a two-run homer in the sixth.
Bieber didn’t issue a walk in his 87-pitch outing, and the Marlins managed just one more hit against him — a Marsee single in the sixth inning.
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