Messick's 'unbelievable' start squandered as bats continue to search for answers

CLEVELAND -- Parker Messick began to make his way back to the Guardians’ dugout in the seventh inning on Wednesday. As he got closer, the Progressive Field crowd came to its feet and gave him a standing ovation.

Messick was once again brilliant. It wasn’t enough to prevent a frustrating night for the Guardians that felt too familiar.

The Guardians lost, 1-0, to the Giants on Wednesday while Messick went home with a tough-luck outcome. He allowed just one run on six hits over 6 2/3 innings while tying a career high with 10 strikeouts.

“Unbelievable again,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Parker just continues to do this.”

The Guardians, meanwhile, continue to have nights like this one. Wednesday marked their 12th shutout loss of the season. It felt like one of the most disappointing of the bunch.

Cleveland is closing out the month of August with a favorable stretch of the schedule in which it is facing the Giants, Rockies, Angels and Rockies, who hold four of the five worst records in the Major Leagues. Like that quartet, the Guardians (61-66) are under .500, but they sit just 1 1/2 games behind the Twins (63-65) for the final American League Wild Card spot.

This is Cleveland’s chance to make a push and solidify itself in the AL postseason race. That means passing this 12-game stretch to end the month with flying colors.

Losing a game like Wednesday can’t happen, even in a sport where any team can beat another on a given day. The Guardians had their chances offensively and had one of their top starting pitchers on the mound.

Messick took the ball almost exactly one year after his Aug. 20, 2025, MLB debut. He has been one of the best starting pitchers in baseball over the past 12 months, and this season has solidified himself as a candidate to get some love in both the American League Rookie of the Year Award and AL Cy Young Award races.

The only damage off Messick came in the fourth. He allowed a leadoff double to Rafael Devers, who advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Bryce Eldridge sacrifice fly. Messick allowed two-out hits to Victor Bericoto and Jung Hoo Lee, but stranded them to keep it a one-run game.

“It’s one of those things if someone gets on, I don't expect them to score,” said Messick, who has a 2.54 ERA in 149 innings over 25 starts this season. “It's not like, ‘Oh no, there's a guy on second or third.’ It’s ‘How do I find a way to leave that guy standing there and come off and fire up the team?’”

The Guardians left their own share of baserunners standing there on Wednesday. They left eight men on base and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Chase DeLauter (left hamstring tightness) and Jo Adell (left knee contusion) were not in the Guardians’ starting lineup Wednesday, as San Francisco used former Cleveland prospect Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson as an opener in his MLB debut.

Wilkinson only pitched two innings, but the Guardians were without two guys who excel against left-handed pitching. Adell has hit .319 with a .973 OPS against southpaws this season, and the left-handed-hitting DeLauter has hit .346 with an .871 OPS against them.

“Obviously neither one of them were available [off the bench],” Vogt said of DeLauter and Adell postgame. “But they're both trending really well, feeling better and better and are day to day still.”

Wilkinson allowed just a base hit to Angel Martínez. Adrian Houser entered for him and threw five scoreless innings and right-hander Dylan Smith pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth.

The Guardians had some tough batted-ball luck, including an Angel Genao lineout in the fourth inning that had a 102.2 mph exit velocity. Bericoto, the left fielder, dove like Superman to make the inning-ending catch, which came when the Guardians had Travis Bazzana on second and Martínez on third.

It was a tough break. It’s also hard to rest on that when the Guardians had other chances to score one single run, but could not. That included in the eighth inning, when Steven Kwan reached on a leadoff single off Smith and advanced to second on a wild pitch.

Kwan did not advance any farther after Smith struck out José Ramírez, Nathaniel Lowe and Martínez.

“Anytime you’re not scoring runs, it's very frustrating, especially when your pitchers are out there dominating,” Hedges said. “We only gave up one run. Obviously, we expect to win those games.”

The Guardians should expect to win many games to end this month. That means they can’t afford many more nights like this one.