Bieber in elite form to help Vogt win debut

OAKLAND -- This is the Shane Bieber everyone has been waiting for.

The signs have been there all spring. Bieber has given every indication that he’s getting back into his Cy Young form, but he was finally able to put it to the test on Thursday night, as he led his team to an 8-0 Opening Day victory over the A’s at the Coliseum with six scoreless innings and 11 strikeouts to hand Stephen Vogt his first career managerial win.

Bieber became the sixth pitcher in AL/NL history to record at least 10 strikeouts in three or more Opening Day performances, joining Randy Johnson (four times), Bob Gibson (three), Pedro Martinez (three), Félix Hernández (three) and Max Scherzer (three).

“We didn’t have an answer for Bieber tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We were swinging at the right pitches. But outside of JJ [Bleday], he pretty much dominated us tonight, up and down the lineup. He has that ability. There’s a reason he won the Cy Young in ’20.”

This looked like a different Bieber from the past few years. His velocity, his strikeout total and his changeup were the biggest things to prove that.

“The whole world knows who Shane Bieber is,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “He just made that adjustment that now the league is going to have to readjust to him.”

Let’s start with the velocity. Bieber threw six pitches faster than 93.0 mph. In all of ’23 (granted, it was shortened due to elbow trouble), he only threw 11 pitches faster than 93. It had been since Aug. 14, 2022, that he last had at least six heaters clock in at that velocity. And keeping in mind that it’s early in the year and starters are still building up to their midseason forms, it’s an optimistic sign that there’s more to come.

“Felt great,” Bieber said of his outing. “A lot of hard work on display, and continue to keep my head down and do what I always do, and we’ll see where we end up.”

That brings us to his strikeouts. The punchout king from years past had started to become more hittable over the past few years. This was his first double-digit strikeout performance since Sept. 1, 2022. In ’23, he ranked in the bottom 2 percent of the Majors in average exit velocity against him (91.6 mph). The contact against him on Thursday averaged 88.4 mph, which matches the league’s average (and clocks in lower than each of his other six seasons).

“It’s just funny because we’re not overdoing the curveball anymore,” Hedges said. “We’re not overdoing the slider. He has some velo and some ride to the fastball now. We’re just pitching. We’re just waiting for the hitter to tell us what to throw.”

The biggest takeaway, though, was Bieber’s changeup. He used the pitch steadily in 2019 and ’20, but hardly threw it the past three seasons. Bieber said that in the past, he had been fixated on making his changeup slower. This offseason, he decided to accept whatever the radar gun says and trust the movement instead. In doing that, he said the changeup is now the best it’s ever been.

“Still kind of learning it, establishing it, but having a lot of fun with it,” Bieber said. “It opens up opportunities with what my bread and butter is, which is breaking balls.”

Bieber threw 13 changeups, five of which were to right-handed batters. In ’23, he didn’t throw a single changeup to a righty. In ’22, he threw four, and he threw just one in ’21. If Bieber is feeling confident enough to add this into his pitch mix consistently, this adds another dimension to an already effective starter.

“All those [other] pitches are either going straight or they’re breaking away from a righty or into a lefty,” Hedges said. “So it’s just another pitch to add something moving the other way, down where he can use the whole strike zone.”

Every year, Bieber has proven that he can reinvent himself to still be an ace, no matter what hurdles he’s facing. Now with those hurdles seemingly out of sight, Bieber has a chance to take his game to the next level.

“The league adjusted to him and now we’re adjusting back,” Hedges said. “And now the league’s gonna have to make another adjustment. … I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun to see what he can do this year.”