![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TNH-L-bbaGuards-1013-03.jpg\")
Jose Ramirez watches his RBI single against the Rays during the ninth inning in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in St. Petersburg, Fla. on Oct. 12. (David J. Phillip\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\nCleveland starting pitcher Parker Messick grew up in Plant City, Florida \u2014 about 25 miles from Tampa \u2014 a Rays fan through and through.<\/p>\n
Now he is getting the chance to move the Guardians one step closer to the World Series when he pitches against the team he rooted for until the Guardians selected him in the second round of the 2022 draft.<\/p>\n
Messick will be on the mound Oct. 13 at Tropicana Field when the Guardians try to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS after banging out 14 hits on the way to winning Game 1, 7-3, on Oct. 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to the only game they won in the \u201908 World Series,\u201d Messick told reporters covering the ALCS before Game 1. \u201cI\u2019ve taken laps around the field with my Little League All-Star banners from winning those tournaments. I mean, I\u2019ve grown up here, loved coming to games here all the way through college, even.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have so many good memories here. It\u2019s an awesome experience every time I get to step out there. And to be able to do it on this stage now is just an incredible opportunity. Thankful to the Lord for that. So hopefully it will be a good one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messick will be making his third start of the postseason still looking for his first win. He was charged with the loss in Game 1 of the ALDS and had a no-decision when the Guardians won Game 4 because the 25-year-old left-hander didn\u2019t make it out of the third inning.<\/p>\n
Gavin Williams proved in a dominant Game 5 \u2014 12 strikeouts in 5 2\/3 innings and credit for the win in the 2-0 victory \u2014 why he is the ace of the staff. Messick is a close second. Williams will pitch Game 3 on Oct. 15 in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
The Rays sent their ace, Drew Rasmussen, to the mound for Game 1, just as they did in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen held the Yankees to one hit in eight scoreless innings in a game the Rays won, 1-0. They swept the Yankees in three games and never trailed.<\/p>\n
The Guardians peppered Rasmussen for eight hits before Rays manager Kevin Cash lifted him after a home run by Patrick Bailey to lead off the seventh inning. Chase DeLauter homered off Rasmussen in the top of the sixth.<\/p>\n
Now the Rays, who were never really challenged on their march to winning the A.L. East with the best record in the American League (98-64), will have to prove they can deal with adversity for the first time in 2026 in the pressure-filled ALCS.<\/p>\n
Fighting back from behind is nothing new to the Guardians. They didn\u2019t overtake the White Sox for the Central Division championship until Game 161 of the regular season. They were down, 0-2, to the White Sox in the ALDS and then won three straight \u2014 twice in Chicago and Game 5 in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Jose Ramirez watches his RBI single against the Rays during the ninth inning in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series in St. Petersburg, Fla. on Oct. 12. (David J. Phillip\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n
The Guardians were in a much shallower in Game 1 of the ALCS, but a hole nonetheless in a ballpark where the Rays were 57-26 in 2026, including two ALDS wins over the Yankees<\/p>\n
The Rays scored twice off Guardians Game 1 starter Foster Griffin in the bottom of the first inning. Griffin was out of the game for four innings by the time Nathaniel Lowe singled up the middle in the top of the eighth inning to drive in Jose Ramirez and DeLauter to break a 2-2 tie, but a key part of the win was Griffin striking out Taylor Walls swinging with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first to limit the damage.<\/p>\n
Jo Adell doubled to left to drive in Ramirez and DeLauter in a three-run ninth inning. Cade Smith sent the Rays down in order in the bottom of the ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland starting pitcher Parker Messick grew up in Plant City, Florida \u2014 about 25 miles from Tampa \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3820,114,3817,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-427091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}