Parker Messick helps Guardians beat Twins in first outing of second half

CLEVELAND — Parker Messick still looked like an All-Star, even after the longest layoff of his career. Messick was effective Tuesday night in his first appearance since pitching a scoreless inning in the Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia on July 14, helping the Guardians clinch at least a split of a four-game series against the Twins with a 5-2 win at Progressive Field. The rookie left-hander, who allowed only an earned run and four hits over 5 2/3 innings, was starting for the first time since July 10. "I felt great. I thought all the stuff was where it needed to be," Messick said. "I thought it was a step in the right direction for the delivery — consistent velo throughout the whole game and some of the best shapes that I've thrown the entire year. Moving forward, when I find some lines on some of my pitches, I'm right where I want to be. "Sometimes the rest can seem a little too long and you're kind of itching to get back out there and I think that's kind of where I was at. I was getting ready to go. But, you're never going to complain about a couple days extra rest." Messick allowed a home run to the third batter, Ryan Jeffers, but only three more hits the rest of the way. He retired nine straight after the solo shot. "Parker just does what he does," manager Stephen Vogt said. "Outside of that home run in the first, he really didn't get hit too hard. We gave them the other run (in the fourth), but he just continues to do his job and go deep into games and just can't say enough about the job Parker's doing. And he still feels like he doesn't have his best stuff right now and he's still navigating games and just really impressive what he's doing." The Guardians broke a 2-all tie with two runs in the sixth. They put the first three of the inning aboard, beginning with Khalil Watson's pinch-hit double. Sacrifice flies scored each run, but it took a top-shelf slide from Travis Bazzana on Petey Halpin's shallow fly ball to center fielder Byron Buxton to put Cleveland up 4-2. Bazzana, who got his hand in before the tag, was ruled out, but after a Guardians challenge the call was overturned. "I tagged expecting to go and it looked good," Bazzana said. "And then Buxton just kept kind of getting closer. I'm like, 'Oh, this is going to be tight one.' (Third base coach Rouglas Odor) kind of creeps into my ear like, 'Hey, you got to take a chance, got to go right here,' as he was about to catch the ball. I timed my push-off as he caught it well, I thought. So I gave myself the best chance, took kind of a wide enough lane that my left arm was just not easy to tag and, yeah, found a way." "That was a huge run. We get thrown out right there it's still a one-run lead. That second run is huge for the bullpen and late in the game," Vogt said. Bazzana delivered a two-out single in the sixth to cap Cleveland's scoring. The Guardians got multihit games from Chase DeLauter, Brayan Rocchio and Gabriel Arias, and a lift from the bullpen, which shut out the Twins over the final 4 1/3 innings, retiring seven straight to end the game. "These guys pitch a lot. They're ready every day. They want to pitch every day," Vogt said of his relievers. "They just come in and they stop games and great job by them tonight." The game ended on a gem in right field from Watson, who raced and leapt at the wall in foul territory to make a catch on a drive from Luke Keaschall. "Watty was huge off the bench today, sparked the go-ahead rally with the double, made a great play in right field. Great night for him," Vogt said. Messick has pitched at least five innings in each of his 20 starts this season. He is the first Cleveland pitcher to accomplish as much in his first 20 outings of the year since Cliff Lee during his Cy Young season in 2008. Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.