The Cleveland Guardians remain the only team in the American League Central with a winning record, sitting one game above .500 after finishing a 4-3 road trip against the Athletics and the Kansas City Royals.
Following back-to-back wins in Kansas City, the Guardians are back at Progressive Field to open a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.
In the series opener, Cleveland left-hander Parker Messick (3-1, 2.40 ERA) will face Twins rookie southpaw Connor Prielipp (1-0, 3.86) in a battle of first-year pitchers.
Messick suffered his first loss of the season in his most recent start, allowing four runs over five innings against the Athletics on Sunday. Though he pitched effectively — striking out six without issuing a walk — he was undone by three home runs.
“The thing I like to live on is any pitch is the right pitch in the right spot,” said Messick, who owns a 6-2 record with a 2.56 ERA across 14 major league starts. “And the quicker I can control the tempo in the game, the more I can control.”
The sturdy lefty has faced the Twins once before, tossing 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball in a no-decision last September in Minnesota. Messick is 3-1 with a 2.59 ERA in seven career home appearances and 3-1 with a 2.52 ERA in seven road starts.
He credits Guardians catchers Austin Hedges, Bo Naylor and David Fry for helping him make a smooth transition to the big leagues. Hedges was behind the plate when Messick came within three outs of a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles on April 16.
“Hedgey, he’s the man back there for me,” Messick said. “He’s constantly communicating, sometimes telling me to slow down and sometimes speeding me up when I need it. It’s all the guys, really. I’m super blessed to be a young guy on a team with three great catchers.”
Minnesota is halfway through a six-game road trip, having dropped the final two games to the Washington Nationals by a combined 22-7 score to fall to six games under .500, matching their lowest point of the season.
The Twins’ trip to Washington ended on a sour note Thursday as starter Simeon Woods Richardson and reliever Anthony Banda combined to hit two batters and walk two more in the fifth inning, leading to three runs and a 7-5 loss.
“We did not play a good baseball game and there are a lot of things we need to improve from it,” Minnesota manager Derek Shelton said. “We can’t hit guys and have free passes. We allowed them to have extra outs, and we can’t do that.”
The Twins went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position as Brooks Lee drove in two runs and Ryan Jeffers homered and doubled twice, but Shelton remained critical of the offense. Leaving nine runners on base in a two-run game was his primary concern.
“We had chances, but we gave away outs,” Shelton said. “We had three runners on third base with less than two outs. You have to take advantage of those situations.”
Prielipp, who made his MLB debut on April 22 against the New York Mets, earned his first win five days later at home against the Seattle Mariners. He has allowed exactly two runs in all three starts, totaling 15 strikeouts and five walks over 14 innings.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder is 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA in two outings against American League opponents, but this will be his first appearance against the Guardians.
