CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Parker Messick followed the Tampa Bay Rays when he was growing up in Plant City, Fla.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Messick\u2019s favorite childhood team knocked him for a loop and once again pushed the Guardians into an elimination situation with a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field.<\/p>\n
The ALCS returns to Tropicana Field for Games 6 and 7, if necessary, on Monday and Tuesday night. <\/p>\n
The Rays lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2. Teams that have taken a 3-2 lead after being tied 2-2 have gone on to win the series 66.7% (46-for-69) of the time.<\/p>\n
Elimination games are nothing new to the Guardians this postseason. They faced three consecutive win-or-go-home games against the White Sox after losing the first two games of the ALDS. They prevailed in each one to reach the ALCS.<\/p>\n
They will face another must-win game Monday night at The Trop. They split the first two games there, winning the series opener, 7-3, but losing the second game, 3-1.<\/p>\n
The Rays, 98-64 during the regular season, were 55-26 at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d said manager Stephen Vogt when asked how his team would approach Game 6. \u201cWe don\u2019t have another choice. We don\u2019t like being in this position, but like we said in the other series, our backs are against the wall. They\u2019ve been against the wall for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is when this team thrives. We\u2019re playing a really good team, especially when they play at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vogt wouldn\u2019t say who his starting pitcher would be on Monday, but he did say who it wouldn\u2019t be \u2014 Gavin Williams. <\/p>\n
Williams, who is having a great postseason, would be on short rest if he pitched on Monday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not an option,\u201d said Vogt.<\/p>\n
The Guardians were in position to end the ALCS on their home turf after taking a 2-1 series lead with a 3-2 win in Game 3 on Thursday. But the Rays bounced back to take Games 4 and 5 to bring the series back to the Trop.<\/p>\n
Yandy Diaz, signed and developed by the Guardians before they traded him to the Rays, told reporters after Sunday\u2019s win that the series is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ends tomorrow (Monday),\u201d said Diaz, 3 for 5 Sunday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to win tomorrow.\u2019<\/p>\n
Messick, making his 36th start of his rookie season, looked gassed Sunday.<\/p>\n
He lasted just two innings, throwing 57 pitches in the shortest start of his career. That the Rays scored only two runs against him was an accomplishment.<\/p>\n
Diaz opened the game with a double and eventually scored on Jonny DeLuca\u2019s bases-loaded walk with two out. It took Messick 30 pitches to get through the first inning as he faced seven batters.<\/p>\n
The second inning wasn\u2019t much better.<\/p>\n
Ben Williamson opened the inning with a single and came around to score on one-out singles by Diaz and Jonathan Aranda for a 2-0 lead. Messick ended the inning with two straight strikeouts, but he was done for the day.<\/p>\n
Messick allowed two runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out three on 57 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said it before, I feel great right now,\u201d said Messick, when asked if he was tired. \u201cSimply just me (not) executing, but body feels good, arm feels good. I\u2019m still throwing hard. I don\u2019t really have any body fatigue, just whether or not I\u2019m executing the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messick said he lost focus in the first inning after Diaz\u2019s leadoff double, and it took him a while to recover.<\/p>\n
The short start sent Vogt and pitching coach Carl Willis into scramble mode as they started emptying the bullpen to try and salvage a win.<\/p>\n
Tim Herrin, who pitched an inning in Saturday\u2019s Game 4 loss, started the third. Chandler Simpson greeted him with a leadoff double and scored on a bloop single by Liam Hicks for a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s where the Guardians\u2019 bullpen said enough.<\/p>\n
Shawn Armstrong, Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith held the Rays scoreless over the last six innings. Smith threw the final 1 1\/3 innings, which could compromise him for Monday\u2019s game if there\u2019s a save situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t anticipate going to the bullpen in the third, but credit to our bullpen,\u201d said Vogt. \u201cThey go seven innings, allow one run, and kept us in the game the whole way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many times did we get the tying run up? We just couldn\u2019t get the big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay\u2019s Drew Rasmussen, who faced the Guards in Game 1, held them to one run in seven innings. He struck out six, walked one and allowed four hits.<\/p>\n
The Guardians scored their only run in the sixth to make it 3-1.<\/p>\n
Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez hit consecutive one-out singles off Rasmussen (2-0, 1.29) to put runners on third and first. Chase DeLauter\u2019s grounder to first scored Kwan, but the threat ended when Rasmussen retired Jo Adell on a pop-up. <\/p>\n
In four starts against the Guardians this season, including the postseason, Rasmussen is 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 32 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cRasmussen throws from edge to edge (of the plate),\u201d said Kwan. \u201cHe throws so many pitches, so much command. Even when he didn\u2019t hit his spot, he hit it on the other side and stayed in the zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went right after us and was super effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messick (0-3, 3.95) has allowed six runs in 13 2\/3 innings in the postseason. He has struck out 17, walked 10 and allowed 17 hits in that span.<\/p>\n
In the regular season, Messick struck out 193, walked 49 and allowed 149 hits in 186 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
In four starts against the Rays this season, including the postseason, he\u2019s 0-3 with a 1.33 ERA.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone who is still playing baseball right now is taxed and their workload is heavy,\u201d said Vogt, when asked if Messick was taxed. \u201cParker feels good. His stuff is still there. This is more innings than he\u2019s ever thrown in his life by more than 70. Of course, that maybe playing into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut just look at the way that kid competed for two innings. Those two innings could have gotten away from him. I hope he gets to throw another time this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guardians\u2019 defense kept them in the game on two occasions.<\/p>\n
Kwan threw out Taylor Walls at the plate from left field for the second out in the fourth. Walls tried to score from second on a single by Aranda.<\/p>\n
In the ninth, Kwan robbed Victor Mesa Jr. of extra bases with a leaping catch at the wall in center.<\/p>\n
Next<\/p>\n
The Guardians and Rays will play Game 6 of the ALCS on Monday at 8 p.m. at Tropicana Field. TBS, TruTV, HBO Max, WTAM\/1100, WMMS 100.7 FM, ESPN Radio and the Guardians Radio Network will carry the game.<\/p>\n
Cleveland has not announced a starting pitcher for Game 6, but the Rays will start RHP Freddy Peralta (1-0, 0.79). He beat the Guardians in Game 2 with six scoreless innings. He also pitched in relief in Game 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Parker Messick followed the Tampa Bay Rays when he was growing up in Plant City,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[169363,135,137,136,169364],"class_list":["post-431754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-cleveland-guardians-2026","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431754","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=431754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}