The Guardians are sticking with the plan they’ve had all along, and that means rookie left-hander Parker Messick gets the ball Thursday in ALDS Game 4 against the Chicago White Sox.
Cleveland is facing elimination, but the rotation lines up cleanly after the club used a bullpen game Wednesday and kept Messick on four days’ rest. MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins confirmed the move on X, formerly Twitter, after the Guardians’ 9-3 win in Game 3 at Rate Field.
“Parker Messick will start for the Guardians in Game 4, as expected.”
Messick’s latest outing came in Game 1 on Saturday, when he worked 4 1/3 innings in Cleveland’s 3-0 loss. He gave up two earned runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six, with Munetaka Murakami delivering the biggest swing of the night on a two-run homer.
That start also put Messick in a notable spot: he became the first Guardians rookie to start a postseason game since Ryan Merritt in 2016.
Over the regular season, the 25-year-old went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA in 32 starts. He also saw plenty of the White Sox, going 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA in five outings against them.
Manager Stephen Vogt had already set Messick and Gavin Williams as Cleveland’s top two starters for the series, and Wednesday’s bullpen game made the path back to Messick for Game 4 the natural one.
The White Sox still hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five after taking the first two games at Progressive Field. Cleveland answered in Game 3 with an 11-hit performance, highlighted by key triples from Jo Adell and Jose Ramirez.
Game 4 shifts back to Rate Field on Thursday. A Guardians win would send the series to a decisive Game 5 in Cleveland on Saturday. A loss would end Cleveland’s season.
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Jo Adell has been right in the middle of it, stepping into a lineup that needed someone to lengthen at-bats and change the feel of the series. His impact has given Cleveland a new layer of danger, the kind that can turn a tight October game into one that gets away from an opponent fast. With the Guardians now carrying all the momentum, the question is no longer whether the move helped, but how far it might carry them from here. [Read more 🡒]