Guardians' Parker Messick joins Paul Skenes as 2nd player with this impressive MLB history originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Parker Messick hasn't exactly gotten a lot of run support in the early stages of his MLB career with the Cleveland Guardians.

But in spite of that, the Guardians have had a chance to win basically every time the young left-hander takes the mound, because he's been pretty darn dominant.

Messick has been so good that he's joined a level of impressiveness only previously reached by Paul Skenes.

The stat: Pitchers who have allowed 19 or fewer runs in their first 13 games while striking out at least 76 guys.

Only TWO pitchers in Major League Baseball history have thrown 76+ strikeouts while allowing 19-or-fewer runs in their first 13 career games pitched 📊:1. PARKER MESSICK (2025-26)2. Paul Skenes (2024)#GuardsBall | @CleGuardianspic.twitter.com/xuwOPV3wAW

This season specifically, Messick has a 1.73 ERA through six starts with 38 strikeouts in 36.1 innings pitched.

He went 5.2 innings on Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run and striking out nine. He left with a lead, but the Guardians' bullpen couldn't keep it.

Messick doesn't throw with the same velocity as Skenes, but the southpaw has a lot of pitches that move in a lot of different ways.

His down-darting changeup might be his nastiest pitch, but his cutter and his breaking ball work well off of his well-commanded heater, too.

Nothing about this seems to be a fluke. Messick's stuff is legitimately good, and his stats are proving it.

Maybe he won't always be quite as good as Skenes, but it'd be hard to draw up a better start to his career than this.

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