ATLANTA -- After Parker Messick held the Cubs to one run over five innings on Sunday, his catcher offered a bit of an endorsement, if not a declaration, about him.
“He’s so good,” Austin Hedges said of Messick this past Sunday. “The guy’s going to be a household name here shortly.”
If Messick keeps pitching the way he has been, it will be impossible to argue with that. Heck, we’re seeing the early indicators each time the rookie left-hander takes the ball. Our most recent example? Messick’s dominant performance against one of the Majors’ top lineups.
The only real trouble Messick got into came in the third and the fifth. In the former, he allowed a walk to Drake Baldwin and a single to Ozzie Albies with two outs. He worked around the traffic by striking out Matt Olson, which he punctuated by letting out a primal yell as he walked off the mound.
In the fifth, Atlanta threatened after Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-out triple. Messick struck out Baldwin swinging to end the inning.
José Ramírez gave Messick all the support he needed in the first inning. He hit a solo home run off Braves starter Martín Pérez to become the first player in Cleveland franchise history to hit a home run against each of the other 29 MLB teams.