Guardians’ Gavin Williams Leads MLB in Strikeouts After Dominant Start

Gavin Williams hasn’t just established himself as the Cleveland Guardians ' ace of their rotation, but as one of the top starting pitchers in all of MLB. That narrative only got even stronger on Saturday night as Williams dominated the Baltimore Orioles in the Guardians’ 4-2 victory. Cleveland’s starting pitcher only gave up one earned run all night, which was a solo home run, and allowed three hits in 7.

0 innings of work. One of Williams’ biggest struggles throughout the early going of the year has been giving away too many free passes to first base, but against the Orioles, he only issued one walk. The most impressive part of this start, though, was Williams’ 11 strikeouts.

This was the second time in 2026 that Williams has notched a start with double-digit punchouts, with the other coming against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gavin Williams, 11th K pic. twitter.

com/PNKQ9T5FDU — Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 18, 2026 In this outing alone, Williams has a whiff rate of 36 percent (18/50), with the majority of those swings and misses coming off his sweeper (12). It was that pitch, along with the fastball and curveball, that simply has Orioles hitters guessing all night long, especially Pete Alonso, who struck out all three times he faced Williams. Stephen Vogt said that Williams on Saturday was “The best I think we’ve seen from him.