Guardians, again above .500, return house to face Twins

The Cleveland Guardians are the only American League Central team with a winning record, sitting one game over .500 after completing 4-3 road trip against the Athletics and Kansas City Royals.

Following victories in the final two contests at Kansas City, the Guardians are back home to begin a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

In the opening contest, Cleveland left-hander Parker Messick (3-1, 2.40 ERA) will take on Twins lefty Connor Prielipp (1-0, 3.86) in a battle of rookies.

Messick absorbed his first loss in his latest start, when he gave up four runs in five innings against the Athletics on Sunday. He pitched adequately in defeat, striking out six without a walk, but was done in by allowing three home runs.

“The thing I like to live on is any pitch is the right pitch in the right spot,” said Messick, who is 6-2 with a 2.56 ERA through 14 major league starts. “And the quicker I can control the tempo in the game, the more I can control.”

The burly hurler has faced the Twins once, working 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball in a no-decision last Sept. 19 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 with helping him make a smooth transition to this level. 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 midway through a six-game trip, having dropped its final two to the Washington Nationals by a combined 22-7 score to match its low mark of six games under .500.

The Twins’ trip to Washington ended on a very sour note Thursday as starter Simeon Woods Richardson and 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 also wasn’t pleased with the club’s offense.

Leaving nine runners on base in a two-run game was his primary complaint.

“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 major league debut April 22 against the New York Mets, earned his initial win five days later at home against the Seattle Mariners. He has given up exactly two runs in all three of his 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 AL foes, but this will be his first appearance against the Guardians.

–Field Level Media