Guardians vs. Rays live updates: Cleveland goes for 2-0 ALCS lead behind Parker Messick in Game 2

Patrick Bailey went deep last night and is 6 for 14 with two home runs in his last four games, but he's on the bench to start Game 2. That's because Austin Hedges is Parker Messick's personal catcher. He's caught 33 of his 34 starts this season (postseason included) and Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, a former catcher himself, doesn't want to mess with that.

"I've never really believed in personal catchers or wanted it," Vogt said earlier today. "We've talked over the years of things of that nature. This one happened organically. It wasn't necessarily -- we're going to pinpoint it. It kind of worked out the first five, six, seven starts where Hedges' day to catch. And then the Patty Bailey trade just kind of made sense for Hedgey to keep catching Parker. And when somebody's having a season like that, you don't necessarily want to disrupt that. So today's no different."

Four games into the postseason, the Rays are still waiting for their offense to click. They've scored only 13 runs in four games, three of which were unearned because the Yankees kicked the ball around in Game 2 of the ALDS. The Rays have hit .209/.261/.341 in their four postseason games, which is about 33% below the league average. Their pitching was so good that they swept the Yankees anyway, but at some point Tampa needs to hit.

Historically, teams that win Game 1 of a best-of-seven series have gone on to win the series 65% of the time. You needn't look back far to see the last time a team came back from a Game 1 loss though. The Dodgers did it in the World Series just last year. Winning Game 1 hardly guarantees a series win, but it does put Cleveland in the driver's seat.

Closer Cade Smith has appeared in all six Guardians games this postseason, and he's thrown 5 ⅔ innings and 83 pitches in the last six days. There was some grousing about using him with a four-run lead in Game 1, but a) Smith started warming when it was a two-run lead, and b) a four-run lead basically is a save situation with the three-batter minimum. One or two baserunners and Smith is back up throwing. Once he warmed up, it was better to just use him and slam the door.

Smith hasn't shown much fatigue despite this workload, but, at some point, the Guardians will need more length from their starters. It's a best-of-seven series and you can't ride your top guys (setup man Hunter Gaddis has appeared in all six postseason games too) like this all October. Parker Messick, tonight's starter, has failed to complete five innings in his two starts this postseason. The Guardians could really use six innings from him tonight, just to ease up on their top relievers.

DH Yandy Díaz

1B Jonathan Aranda

3B Junior Caminero

RF Victor Mesa Jr.

CF Jonny DeLuca

LF Chandler Simpson

2B Ben Williamson

C Liam Hicks

SS Taylor Walls SS

***

SP Freddy Peralta

LF Steven Kwan

3B José Ramírez

DH Chase DeLauter

RF Jo Adell

1B Nathaniel Lowe

2B Travis Bazzana

CF Petey Halpin

C Austin Hedges

SS Brayan Rocchio

***

SP Parker Messick