Padres right-hander Mike Clevinger was removed from tonight’s game after throwing two pitches in the bottom of the second inning. After tossing 22 pitches in a scoreless first inning that included two walks and a wild pitch, Clevinger threw two balls to Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger before departing after a mound visit from manager Jayce Tingler and a team trainer.
It wasn’t clear until today whether San Diego would even include Clevinger on the NLDS roster, yet Clevinger was indeed on the hill to start Game 1. The righty hadn’t pitched since September 23 due to an elbow strain that forced him to sit out the Padres’ wild card series victory over the Cardinals.
There hasn’t been any word on Clevinger’s status, though Tingler speculated during an in-game interview (hat tip to MLB.com’s Adam Berry) that “I think what happened was that long half-inning there and it tightened up and never warmed back up on him.” The Padres sent six batters to the plate in the top of the second and forced Dodgers starter Walker Buehler to throw 33 pitches, which led to a lengthy wait for Clevinger.
While San Diego likely didn’t expect too long an outing for Clevinger given his return from injury, the Friars have now been forced into a makeshift bullpen game to begin their series with Los Angeles. It will test the depth of a Padres team that is already missing a key arm in Dinelson Lamet and now faces the possibility that Clevinger could be done for at least the rest of this series. As Berry noted, the Padres can make an injury replacement for Clevinger on the NLDS roster, but that would mean Clevinger is also not allowed to pitch should the Padres reach the NL Championship Series.
Speaking of this game… Globe Life Field looks so weird in this game. The straight overhead camera is now a little shifted down and to the right, and it is also zoomed in a little more. I actually like it a lot. Plus the color changes to the padding on the walls. I think it looks good.
The Rangers built a graveyard for a park. It’s going to ruin this series.
Is it just me, or are the cameras really hazy. The jerseys for both teams seem very faded. I don’t know if it has to do with the indoor stadium but I don’t remember Rangers games looking like this earlier in the year.
It’s a classic game so they used cameras to make sure it looks vintage later babyyy
To answer both you and Fred, the cameras weren’t hazy when the Rangers played on the usual FSSW, but when the stadium is filmed by national cameras, it just looks weird… plus they have no lights on behind home plate in that little cubby hole which looks really odd to me because when we played it was light behind there.
Fred, I hope that the teams that play at Globe Life complain about the lack of offense. Ownership doesn’t want to change the park after a 60 game season, but maybe if some higher level teams complain about it, they will consider some changes to it. In fact, when the roof is open, the ball flies out of the park (albeit for the opposing team lol).
Maybe it’s because it’s new, but from the shots we’ve seen the park seems so bland and like it has zero personality. It kinda looks like they’re playing in a giant warehouse.
I think they’re going to have to make some offseason adjustments
Yeah it looked better in the regular season when LAD was there. I don’t know why it felt so dark in the seats but yeah hopefully they can figure something out
I mean, the new park does have the brick arches out in deep left field, and a huge window out there that shows the old stadium just staring back at us, but besides that it is boring and complicated. The outfield dimensions are to honor the old Ranger players, and they have tricky corners and such that even our players don’t understand it. It is a pitcher’s park for sure, the ball just doesn’t fly in there. It flails in comparison to the old park, and still cost a ton.
The owners say that it would’ve cost just as much to put a roof on the old one as it would’ve to build a new one, and you know what… it would’ve been worth it… For Christ’s sake the old on was called the Temple! It was that majestic! It was my favorite park in baseball, but dang… the new one sucks.
The game looked very dull color wise on my tv. Also had a lot of jutter when anything fast moving happened. Also the sound was out of sync. Checked other channels and they were fine. Really hope todays games quality is improved.
The field is just ugly in general. Just looks like a generic domed stadium. The ballpark in Arlington was great, like Camden it blended old and new. Really looked like a baseball stadium. Sad they moved on from it.
My mouth’s been hanging open since August over my padres especially with how good tonight’s game is.
Tommy John forthcoming.
I’m awed by both teams focus/performance tonight for what looks like most walks in a game I’ll ever see but pretty good chance you’re right.. If he doesn’t get it now I assume he’ll probably play average and need it sometime next year.
Groundhog Day
Mckenzie Gore time!
The problem with that though is they would need a 40 man spot for him and they DFA’ed Abraham Almonte already to make room for Weathers, so there’s no ideal DFA candidate remaining. Unless they can move Clevinger onto the 60 day IL, which I don’t think they can, I really don’t know if they would want to cut a player for Gore.
Probably makes more sense from a roster perspective to get Báez, Altavilla or Perdomo since they’re all already on the 40 man.
Yes I agree. Calling Gore to start game 3. Go with Davies tonight
Not happy to see an injury, but damn did I call this
Guess they figured if he’s not good now he won’t be this playoffs, but seems like they risked his LCS spot that maybe he could have been ready for
Yep, you did. And their bullpen is already in peril due to the constant shuttling of arms. The Dodgers meanwhile flexed their pitching depth. It’s quite something when you can summon Dustin May out of the pen.
They actually didn’t throw their top 3 arms, Rosenthal, Pomeranz and Pagan, so in theory if they could get a starter to throw 6 decent innings I think their pen would be fine. The problem is I don’t have any confidence that either Paddack or Davies can do that based on their last starts, so if they need to use like 6+ pitchers tonight they’re really going to start taxing arms early in the series.
Dustin May out of the pen like that is just brutal. He’d probably start game 1 for most other teams based on their depth so having him come in like that is a nightmare for opposing teams.
No depth for padres.
No depth for their fan base, either.
They have depth with their lineup and bullpen. Their rotation is thin with their top two starters out.
SD blew it not keeping Bauer when they had him in their cusp and let him go to cincy for trammel. Then they gave up more for clevinger than what Bauer went for. Bauer would have been the most dominant pitcher in postseason and would have started twice against LA giving Padres a real shot. Shame !
Clevenger really screwed them over… I mean I’m sure he didn’t want to only pitch 1-inning before being too hurt to continue BUT it really has a massive impact on the team + series. Not only did this game have to turn into a bullpen game thus weakening the Padres pen going forward. But now roster spot wise they have a tough decision to make. If they replace Clevinger on the roster now they loose him for 2 rounds — but if they don’t and he isn’t healthy enough to pitch they’re just shooting themselves in the foot by not having enough P on their roster. It’s possible this is all a moot point and Clevenger is actually just flat out done for the season in which case the roster decision is a no-brainer. But if not… it’s definitely a tough situation/call for the club
Cmon. There has to be some responsibility from the Padres side. They are the ones who set the roster
You’re mad the guy the team went and overpaid for wants to pitch against the division rival in the playoffs? It’s on the team to decide if the health matches what he’s said. I mean Clev was having problems..4 days ago? Less? With 1 inning in the last 3 weeks? The padres had to have know he was a potential grenade. They threw it to see what would happen. He may have blown his arm out trying to help y’all win
Well we don’t know all of the medical reports here but apparently according to the Padres beat reporter they have been told by doctors he can’t do further damage by continuing to pitch, it’s just a pain management and effectiveness issue.
So that kind of explains why they’re attempting it, whether that’s actually true or not remains to be seen. I’m somewhat skeptical that him continuing to throw on a hurt arm is not a long term threat to his health. Ultimately it’s the Padres decision whether to roster him and play him hurt, that falls on them not the player who obviously wants to compete.
I get that you got him so you can compete in these types of situations, but you also gave up a decent chunk of your future because MC should be a bigger piece of that future. He clearly wasn’t ready to come back and it was a high risk area that was hurting him to put him on the DL to begin with. Idk. Padres have a bit of a history of poor healthcare management with their players, this can be added to that list
I think the Clevinger move was actually a brilliant move for Preller – and he doesn’t make many of those. It theoretically gave them Lamet and Clevinger at the top of the rotation for the playoffs, which would have given them a real shot at any series. It made a ton of sense to deal from depth for that shot. Of course, it didn’t work out with both of their arms exploding. Moving forward, I fear that the injuries to Lamet and Clevinger are significant and will impact their seasons next year as well.
Cant say I’m surprised Clevinger only lasted an inning. Seemed like the Padres were willing to rush him back because of the magnitude of the series. Hope it doesnt bite them long term. As a Dodger fan, I can definitely hear the footsteps of the Padres. Now the Padres are experiencing the frustration of having a really good team, and having health issues put the breaks to a solid season. So many things have to go right to win it all, putting together a solid team is just the start. Not over yet, but they are certainly weaker than what I was expecting.
Bad arm = bad trade.
Buehler’s command is a bit troubling. We’ve seen it in the past but we’re seeing it more frequently of late. Perhaps the blister is contributing to this but it also appears to be some mechanics/mental. He’s also getting a little more testy with the plate umpires. For the Dodgers to win it all he’s going to need better command. Similar to Urias. The stuff is electric when they can locate but when they can’t locate in and out of the zone they struggle a bit. Fortunate to get out of that bases loaded 3-0 count.
I thought May was awesome last night. Very good command and electric stuff. Hitting the edges of the box with movement on the fastball with some sliders mixed in, and even when the location was not there it’s 99/100 mph with movement. Tough to hit that.
Maybe this is why the Indians sent him out of town.