With the Padres leading 5-1 in the fourth inning, Joe Musgrove walked off the mound with an apparent elbow injury, leaving the Padres bullpen to secure their spot in the NLDS.
The Padres have not updated Musgrove’s status, but ESPN’s broadcast showed Musgrove shaking his right arm at one point in the fourth inning as his velocity dipped.
Musgrove was on the injured list twice this season with elbow trouble stemming from a bone bruise and bone spurs.
He returned to the rotation in August after more than two months off and had a 2.15 ERA in nine starts leading into Wednesday’s start against the Atlanta Braves. The second ramp-up included more than a month of rest, a PRP injection and a delivery overhaul aimed at taking stress off the elbow.
“In the past I’ve had injuries and come back and I’ve tried to do a little too much with a small pitch count,” Musgrove said Tuesday afternoon, “and ended up not getting the progression work that I needed because I was so focused on getting deep into the game and being as efficient as possible that I didn’t use my pitches in a fashion that I typically would and I didn’t prepare them properly.
“I’ve always been a kind of cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-there kind of guy with my rehab as well.”
Musgrove allowed a run in the first inning—Michael Harris II doubled to lead off the game and scored on a sacrifice fly—but hadn’t allowed a baserunner after the first inning, piling up four strikeouts as the Padres rallied to give him a lead.
He struck out Ozzie Albie to start the fourth on an at-bat that began with a 94 mph four-seamer. The four-seamer before Marcell Ozuna’s groundout dropped to 92 mph. After floating two mid-70s curves into Matt Olson, a pitch that was clocking in at 82 mph earlier, catcher Kyle Higashioka called timeout for a mound meeting.
Pitching coach Ruben Niebla joined them as did the training staff and Padres manager Mike Shildt.
After a long talk, Shildt patted Musgrove on the “PS” heart on his jersey as he walked off the mound.
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