The Cleveland Guardians kept their season alive long enough to give Parker Messick the baseball again.
It’s a crucial step to potentially coming back against the Chicago White Sox in the ALDS.
The Guardians fell behind 2-0 in the series, including a start by Messick, before winning on Wednesday night to pull within 2-1.
It’s a best-of-five series, so Cleveland needs to win the next two games or the season will be over.
There’s no one better they can hand the ball to for Game 4 than Messick, the left-handed ace in just his first full MLB season but already having developed into one of the sport’s best pitchers.
In general, having Messick on the mound bodes well for the Guardians.
Before every game, though, a starting pitcher will go through the opposing lineup, usually with his catcher and pitching coach, to figure out how they want to approach things.
There are a lot of strengths for Messick against the White Sox, but past data shows two potential problem spots.
Parker Messick vs. White Sox BVP
The batter vs. pitcher stats here mostly favor Messick.
The White Sox have hit .215 against him overall in 107 at bats among the players currently on their postseason roster. They have a cumulative .668 OPS against him.
Messick has gotten the best of some of the matchups.
Kyle Teel is 0-for-5 against him. Sam Antonacci is 0-for-3, and so is Tristan Peters.
Those hitters are all lefties, though, which makes sense. The White Sox will probably load up their lineup with right-handed bats against Messick on Thursday night, with a few exceptions.
And really, Messick will have to navigate around the sluggers.
Murakami, Grichuk Potential Problems
The two players Messick has the least success against are Munetaka Murakami and Randal Grichuk.
Murakami, who does bat lefty, is 3-for-6 against Messick with two home runs — and he hit one in Game 1 of the ALDS.
Grichuk, a righty who has always mashed against southpaws, is 5-for-14 against Messick with two doubles and a triple.
The other big slugger, Miguel Vargas, is just 3-for-15 against Messick but does have a home run.
Tommy Pham and Braden Montgomery have also hit a home run off of Messick.
The other main starters, Colson Montgomery (3-12, 1 2B) and Chase Meidroth (4-17, 1 2B) have had just a little success off of Messick.
It certainly isn’t a perfect matchup for Messick. There are spots where he can get beat.
Still, there’s no one the Guardians would trust on the mound more in this moment than him. It’ll just be up to him to overcome the White Sox lineup and keep Cleveland’s season alive for another day.
Parker Messick vs. White Sox History Leaves 2 Concerns for Guardians in ALDS Game 4