MILWAUKEE -- Parker Messick didn’t look particularly comfortable Thursday afternoon.
That was the impressive part.
The Brewers put runners on base seemingly every inning, especially early in the game. They challenged the 25-year-old left-hander with pressure and constant traffic on the bases.
Messick responded by delivering another dominant outing in his young career.
Behind Messick's six innings of two-run ball and season-high-tying nine strikeouts, the Guardians avoided a series sweep with a 4-2 victory over the Brewers at American Family Field. The win snapped a five-game losing streak in Milwaukee and provided a much-needed boost for a club still adjusting to life without José Ramírez, Angel Martínez and Chase DeLauter.
"Outstanding performance by Parker," manager Stephen Vogt said. "He got himself into trouble at times, but he made some huge pitches when he needed to and gave us length when we needed it."
The box score shows six innings, four hits, three walks and nine strikeouts.
It doesn't fully capture how difficult some of those six innings were.
Milwaukee wreaked havoc in the second inning after the first three hitters reached safely. The Brewers managed just one run. An inning later, Christian Yelich opened the third with a double.
Messick responded by striking out the next two batters. After an intentional walk and a wild pitch advanced Yelich to third, Messick recorded his third K of the frame to end the threat.
Again and again, the Brewers threatened.
Again and again, Messick continued to make pitch after pitch.
"I don't even think about that stuff," Messick said of pitching with runners on base. "I pretend like they're not even there, and I just execute the pitches that are called. That's the only way to keep getting outs."
The outing also featured a noticeable jump in velocity.
Messick's four-seam fastball averaged 95.9 mph -- more than two mph above his season average (93.7 mph) entering the day -- and topped out at 97.5 mph. Six of his nine strikeouts came via the heater, which repeatedly overwhelmed Brewers hitters even on a day when his changeup wasn't at its best.
"We made some good adjustments this week on the delivery," Messick said. "We kind of got back to what we were doing the first couple months of the season. Everything was coming out a little sharper today."
The offense rewarded him with power.
After Milwaukee grabbed an early lead, David Fry snapped an 0-for-12 skid by sneaking a game-tying homer over the wall in the third inning. The blast served as a reminder of how much the Guardians have missed timely swings during a difficult stretch offensively.
The Brewers answered with a run in the fourth, but Cleveland's offense kept punching back.
Kyle Manzardo continued his torrid June by launching his eighth homer of the season in the sixth inning, tying the game at 2. The first baseman has been one of Cleveland's steadiest offensive performers recently, batting .308 with three homers this month.
Then came Travis Bazzana.
Just two innings after getting picked off and killing a promising scoring opportunity, the rookie second baseman responded in the best possible way, crushing a go-ahead solo homer in the seventh.
"I was a little too aggressive," Bazzana said of the earlier baserunning mistake. "But you've got to take the wins where they are and find momentum."
The homer gave Cleveland its first lead of the series.
Moments later, the Guardians manufactured an insurance run. With the bases loaded and two outs, Daniel Schneemann sprinted home on a Drew Rom wild pitch to make it 4-2.
The lead held, though not without another heart-stopping moment.
Tim Herrin (two walks) and Colin Holderman (one walk, one HBP) combined to load the bases in the seventh inning, but Holderman eventually escaped by inducing a groundout from Andrew Vaughn, preserving the lead and allowing Cade Smith to handle the final four outs for his Major League-leading 24th save.
On a day filled with key moments, none proved bigger than the work Messick did after the Brewers repeatedly threatened to break the game open.
He bent. He adjusted. He trusted his fastball.
And when the Guardians desperately needed someone to steady the game, Messick gave them far more than that -- he gave them a way out of Milwaukee with a win.