Cleveland left Fenway Park with a 3-2 win Tuesday night, riding through a tightly played rookie-starter matchup and finding one last run after Boston had pulled even in the eighth. The result moved the Guardians closer to a postseason berth and kept them ahead of the White Sox in the American League Central race.
Game line
| Club | R |
|---|---|
| Guardians | 3 |
| Red Sox | 2 |
Rookie starters set the tone
Parker Messick and Boston’s Payton Tolle brought the kind of young-arm matchup that can make a late-September game feel even tighter. Messick was not as crisp as usual early, surrendering a hit in each of his first four innings, but he limited the damage and departed with Cleveland holding a 2-1 edge.
The left-hander finished five innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with one walk and five strikeouts. He retired the side in order in the fifth, punching out Nick Sogard to close his outing. Messick’s ERA fell to 2.55, the third-best figure among qualified American League starters, and he has now allowed no more than three earned runs in 14 straight starts.
| Pitcher | IP | H | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parker Messick, Cleveland | 5.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Payton Tolle, Boston | 5.2 | — | 2 | — | — |
With Cleveland beginning to sort out its October pitching plans, the start may have been Messick’s final regular-season assignment. He gave the club what it needed: five innings, a slim lead, and a bullpen game that still had room to breathe.
Cleveland cashes in, then answers late
The Guardians got both of their early runs in the second inning. David Fry delivered an RBI single, and another run came home on a double-play ball against Tolle, who otherwise kept Boston in the game over 5 2/3 innings.
Cleveland had chances to add on but could not get a runner home in the third or seventh, with Boston’s drawn-in infield turning ground balls into outs at the plate. Those missed openings mattered when Mickey Gasper came off the Boston bench in the eighth and jumped on Hunter Gaddis’ first pitch for his 10th homer, tying the score.
The Guardians did not let the tie linger. Chase DeLauter reached scoring position in the ninth and came home on Nathaniel Lowe’s sacrifice fly, putting Cleveland back in front for good.
It was a narrow win, the kind a club remembers in the final days of a division race: a rookie starter working through traffic, two runs manufactured early, a late bullpen stumble, and one clean answer when the game was there to be taken.
