Parker Messick did not have his sharpest stuff Friday night against the Twins, and he did not try to hide that after the game. What he did have was the kind of composure that has become a hallmark of his rookie season, working through traffic for over five innings while trusting that the lineup behind him would eventually come through. By the time Angel Martinez delivered a home run and a double in the late innings to help seal a 5-2 win, Messick made sure to credit the group that bailed him out.
Messick did not overstate his own performance, choosing instead to point toward the bigger picture.
“I mean, that’s an incredible feeling, and I try and do the same for them. You know, when the games are tight like that, I just try and do my best to limit damage. You know, whether I feel like I have my dominant stuff or not, I just try and go out there and keep the team in the game, and you know when [Angel MartÃnez] comes up later in that game and and has has the homer and the and the double later, I mean it just speaks volumes to what we’re able to do late in games, and you know we feel like we’re able to have a chance. We really fight back,” Messick said.
(Via #Guardians audio) Parker Messick to reporters in Minnesota in what it meant to seeing Cleveland’s offense pushing as hard as they did during his start:
“I mean, that's an incredible feeling, and I try and do the same for them. You know, when the games are tight like that, I…
— Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) September 12, 2026
That mindset says plenty about how Messick has approached his first full season in the rotation.
That trust was rewarded in a big way. Martinez turned around a pitch in the seventh inning for a home run that traveled well over four hundred feet, then came back in the ninth with a double that set up the go ahead run in a wild final frame. Messick pointed to that stretch specifically as proof of what this Cleveland lineup is capable of producing late in games, saying it speaks to the belief the team carries into close situations no matter how the game has unfolded up to that point.
It is that belief that has fueled Cleveland’s playoff push through the stretch run. Games like Friday’s, close and tense for most of the night before the offense finds a way to break through late, have become something of a pattern for this Guardians team, and pitchers like Messick pointing to that resilience afterward reflects a level of trust that has built up across the roster over the course of the season. For a rookie still building his own track record in the league, having that kind of confidence in the group around him only adds to what has already been a strong first full year for Messick on the mound.
With Cleveland pushing hard for playoff positioning in both the division and Wild Card races, performances like the one Messick turned in Friday, keeping his team in the game even without his best command, are exactly what a club needs from its rotation this time of year.
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