The playoffs present a darker, more treacherous jungle thicket for pitchers than any other point of a Major League Baseball season. There’s no time to tinker or be patient.
You need a predator. A steely-eyed panther.
If you’re the Padres, you need Joe Musgrove. That’s who will get the ball in Game 2 of the NL wild-card series on Wednesday with a chance to close out the Braves, line up the Dodgers and kick things fully and frenetically into overdrive.
That’s because brother-in-arms Michael King shut down the Braves 4-0 Monday at Petco Park.
Few if any in his line of work feel as specifically built for October as Musgrove, who prepares maniacally without brakes or a pause button.
Whether it’s deep-water training in the offseason with Marines or toiling in the shadows until he’s reduced to a puddle of sweat, Musgrove understands shortcuts lead to short-circuiting when the heat spikes.
There might be no one carved from sturdier mental bedrock, buttressing that part of the playbook equally as purposefully and religiously.
“There’s a lot more at stake, but it’s the same game we’ve played all year long,” Musgrove said Tuesday before Game 1. “It’s a team we’ve seen before. It’s just a matter of managing your emotions and staying in the moment and not letting the fears and doubt and worry sink in.
“It’s a real thing. Everyone experiences it. But I think the longer you play this game, the better you get at managing that and trying to channel it to benefit you.”
The case for Musgrove’s big-game readiness stretching beyond the considerable evidence stacked along the way — including a no-hitter, the first in franchise history — unfolded in 2022.
The hometown guy with all the pressures and shoulder-straining load that delivers was asked to throw the punches that mattered most in a back-alley, wild-card series fight against the Mets at Citi Field.
Musgrove became the first pitcher in postseason history to allow two or fewer hits (1) and throw at least seven innings in a win-or-go-home game.
The 101-win Mets flailed for answers so mightily that manager Buck Showalter pointed to the most famous shiny, sweat-soaked ear in playoff history to justify a substance check and break Musgrove’s rhythm.
“That just lit another fire,” Musgrove later told the Union-Tribune. “I was so dialed in. That just kicked me into another gear. Everyone’s screaming cheater at me. It felt good to shove it up their (expletive).”
That’s the guy who wants the ball. That’s who needs the ball.
Padres leader Manny Machado framed the significance of Musgrove in that moment and the dominoes it tipped on the way to the NLCS.
“He had the pressure of the whole city, the whole organization, everyone in this clubhouse,” Machado said. “He put us on his back. The thing with them thinking he was cheating. Being from San Diego. All that.
“To have all that pressure, that gives you that next-level energy superstars take it to. That’s what he did that day.”
That’s the brand of rarified air into which Musgrove elevated himself, earning playoff cred afforded only to those who survive and thrive in places that can-crush others.
Brown. Peavy.
Musgrove.
When the El Cajon native who played at Grossmont High School was announced before Tuesday’s opener and shown on the Petco Park video board, his locked-in facial expression indicated he was ready to toss haymakers a full 24 hours before stepping on the mound.
“I think that’s the reason why he landed there (in Game 2), he’s so good in that scenario, that setting,” Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla said. “It’s the big moment not getting to him and him stepping up. He’s proven that over and over again.”
Musgrove revels in the ascent. He bear-hugs the struggle. He blinks in the offseason.
Three times in 2024, he has landed on the injured list for elbow issues that included bone spurs. In the 10 games before being sidelined by the elbow, his ERA was 5.66 and opponents were hitting .305 with a bloated .895 OPS.
Since returning and tweaking his delivery, the numbers did a full 180: He has a 2.15 ERA with a .195 opponent batting average and .553 opponent OPS.
“I’ve always been a kind of cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-there kind of guy, with my rehab,” Musgrove said. “… About not knowing what would come from the injury and if there was concern, I don’t have a whole lot of that.
“I do things that I know I need to do to get ready.”
Sounds like law-of-the-playoff-jungle stuff.
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