Messick (7-4) took the loss Tuesday against the White Sox, allowing two runs on three hits and one walk while striking out 10 over 7.2 innings.
Messick gave Cleveland arguably the best start of his career Tuesday, as he threw 63 of his 95 pitches for strikes and generated an impressive 17 whiffs while racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts. The left-hander retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced before Colson Montgomery delivered an RBI single to open the scoring. Messick later surrendered a solo homer to Miguel Vargas in the sixth, which ultimately proved to be the deciding run in a low-scoring contest. The outing continued an excellent stretch for the 25-year-old, who has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in seven of his last nine starts and has recorded 19 strikeouts over his last 13.2 innings. He'll carry a 2.67 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 101:29 K:BB into his next scheduled start at home against Texas.