Stephen Vogt’s gutsy decision to start Parker Messick in Game 5 could be defining moment of his Guardians tenure

Later today, Parker Messick will walk onto the mound at Progressive Field in the hopes of pitching the Guardians to a 3-2 lead in the American League Championship Series. That in itself should give every Guardians fan some peace of mind as they look to flush last night’s loss. 

But the flipside of Messick going today means that he won’t be available to pitch in tomorrow’s Game 6 and is likely going to be down for the rest of the ALCS. 

While today’s game technically isn’t a “must-win” since it can’t end with either team popping champagne, it’s as close to a must-win as the Guardians can have given they’re using their biggest pitching advantage. 

The Guardians need Parker Messick to put up a quality start today in Game 5 of ALCS

We wouldn’t be in this position had Friday’s game not been postponed. If the schedule had played out as it was initially scheduled, Messick’s first opportunity to start on normal rest would have come on Monday in Game 6 in Tampa. But the postponement shuffling put  Messick in play for tonight’s game, and Vogt jumped at the first chance to use him. 

He’ll go against Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, who authored an All-Star regular season but was tagged for two runs on eight hits in Game 1 of the ALCS. 

Using Messick today means the Guardians are going to be all but forced to use a bullpen game on Monday in Game 6 where we could end up seeing plenty of Tanner Bibee. 

Foster Griffin, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo all pitched in Saturday’s 7-3 loss, so none of them are going to be able to give Vogt any length tomorrow (if they pitch at all), so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Bibee work behind an opener. 

While that scenario may have seemed like a win at the start of the season, Bibee’s rough regular season and disastrous postseason appearance have removed most of the hype around any of his pitching appearances. 

The good news for the Guardians is that Vogt is going to have his full stable of relief arms since he was able to hold off from using their big three of Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith on Saturday. 

While that came in a loss, it’s still an advantage as both teams are staring down the barrel of playing three games in three days. 

Vogt and the Guardians could have decided to go with that pitching madness today, but they decided to kick that can down the road for one more day and push Messick to the front of the line. 

Now it’s going to be on Messick to make that decision worth it. 

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