Parker Messick didn’t have his sharpest outing Sunday, but he wasn’t about to sound like a pitcher who thinks the season is slipping away.
After the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field, the rookie left-hander talked like a guy who still expects Cleveland to make this thing interesting. The Rays’ win gave them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, putting the Guardians in must-win mode for Game 6 on Monday at Tropicana Field and, if necessary, Game 7 on Tuesday.
“You don’t count out the Guards. I think we showed that in the in the ALDS, and I think we’re all confident going in. We’re going to have a have a good flight here and go and try and win 2 games in a row,” Messick said.
Messick’s point was simple: this group has already been here before. Cleveland dropped the first two games of the division series at home, then rattled off three straight elimination wins to become the first team in franchise history to erase a 2-0 deficit in a postseason series.
Messick was part of that run, too. He had a rough Game 4 against Chicago, and José Ramírez told him he would turn things around for him before delivering the go-ahead home run that helped keep the Guardians alive.
Even with Sunday’s short night, there are numbers that help explain why Messick still has so much trust in himself and his team. Against Tampa Bay this season, including the postseason, he has a 1.33 ERA in four starts.
The Guardians lost all four of those games, though. On the year overall, Messick put together a standout rookie campaign, making the All-Star team and finishing with a 2.56 ERA and 193 strikeouts.
Cleveland’s bullpen gave the club a chance after Messick left early. Shawn Armstrong, Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith combined for six scoreless innings, but the offense could only scratch out one run, and Drew Rasmussen kept the Guardians quiet for most of the night.
The belief around the clubhouse clearly hasn’t budged. Stephen Vogt opened his postgame press conference with two words, let’s go, and said there is no team he would rather bet on in this spot than his own.
Messick sees two more wins out there. Cleveland will get the first chance to prove him right in Tampa Bay.
In Other News...
Guardians Turn To An Unexpected Arm In Must Win Game 6
With their backs against the wall in Game 6, the Guardians are making a less conventional call on the mound by turning to right-hander Shawn Armstrong as the opener. It is the kind of move that speaks to the urgency of the moment, especially with the series slipping and Cleveland looking for any edge it can find against a Rays club that has been getting strong pitching at the right time.
Tampa Bay brings plenty of confidence into the matchup after Drew Rasmussen followed up with another dominant postseason showing in Game 5, while Freddy Peralta is lined up to get the ball for Game 6 after settling in quickly since arriving. Cleveland, meanwhile, is still trying to rebound from Parker Messick's rough recent start, and the Guardians' choice to hand the first inning to Armstrong only adds another layer of intrigue to a game they simply cannot afford to waste. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Took A Risk With Parker Messick In The Worst Spot
The Guardians made a notable change behind the plate in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, pairing Parker Messick with Patrick Bailey instead of Austin Hedges for the first time. It was the kind of move that spoke to the moment as much as the matchup, with manager Stephen Vogt leaning on Baileys strong bat while accepting the possibility that it could alter the rhythm Messick had built with his usual catcher.
It proved to be a tough night for the rookie. Messick got through only two innings and allowed two runs, and Cleveland never quite recovered in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. In a postseason game where every small edge matters, the Guardians took a calculated swing on catching alignment, and the result only sharpened the question of whether the risk was worth it in the biggest spot. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Season Ended With One Brutal Pitching Question
The pitching that carried Cleveland through the regular season suddenly became the source of trouble when the Guardians reached the ALCS, and the fallout was hard to miss in the loss to the Rays. Richie Palacios delivered a two-run double that swung momentum, and the Rays kept building from there with a pair of back-breaking homers from Junior Caminero and Yandy Daz.
Cleveland had to lean on multiple arms early, a sign the game was already slipping away, and Parker Messicks two-inning outing added to the strain. For a club that spent months relying on its staff to steady everything around it, the postseason exit left one ugly question hanging over the roster: how much of that pitching edge can actually be counted on when the stakes get highest? [Read more 🡒]