• Clevinger replaced on roster.
Padres right-hander could return for WS, maybe not as starter
The pitcher the Padres got for the playoffs is back on the sideline again for the playoffs.
Mike Clevinger was removed from the team’s National League Division Series roster and replaced by reliever Dan Altavilla shortly before the Padres played the Dodgers in Game 2 on Wednesday.
Clevinger, by rule, will not be available for the NL Championship Series should the Padres advance.
It was determined after examination Wednesday that Clevinger was not going to be ready to pitch before Saturday, which is the last possible day for this series.
While it is considered unlikely he pitches again this postseason, Clevinger continues to push for the opportunity. The hope is that shutting him down for a time will allow him to return. So far in his attempt to get back, he has been throwing close to every day.
In the meantime, the Padres, who are down to two starting pitchers, were compelled to make a move for a healthy arm.
Right-hander Altavilla, who was on the Wild Card Series roster and was the only pitcher to not participate in those three games, was the choice. He allowed three earned runs in 82⁄
3 innings after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners in an Aug. 30 trade but finished the regular season with four scoreless appearances (32⁄ innings).
3 According to people familiar with the situation, Clevinger is essentially in the same situation he has been since Sept. 23 when he left a start with what was later diagnosed as an impingement in the back of his right (throwing) elbow.
“I’m not giving up,” Clevinger said after leaving the Padres’ Game 1 loss to the Dod
gers on Tuesday in the second inning due to discomfort in his right elbow that caused the velocity of his pitches to dip significantly. “I don’t think anybody on that training staff is going to give up either.”
If he does return, he will be pitching with the same discomfort he had Tuesday night.
“Like the bones are hitting on the back of my elbow,” he said.
Clevinger was advised by doctors throughout the process that pitching would not worsen his elbow. There is no quick fix except arthroscopic surgery, which is possible after the season. Clevinger, however, talked of the remedy being altering his “body alignment” as he throws.
Should the Padres win the NLDS and NLCS and Clevinger resumes throwing after the swelling lessens, perhaps next week, the Padres would not be counting on him providing the
length of a traditional starter in the World Series. The question would be whether he can get ready to pitch and then try to go as long as he can.
He threw more pitches in his second bullpen than in his first and more Tuesday than in the other two combined.
“We’re bumping the threshold up,” Clevinger said after Tuesday’s game. “So hopefully we’ll be able to push it and get back.”
The Padres will figure that out if they have to. If they get to.
Entering Wednesday’s game they had not had a starting pitcher last even three innings in the postseason.
They are the first team to have used at least eight pitchers in four straight games. They tied a Division Series record for a nine-inning game by using nine pitchers Tuesday.
Neither Clevinger nor Dinelson Lamet (biceps/elbow) pitched in the Wild Card Series
and Lamet was not included on the roster for the NLDS.
The acquisition of Clevinger on Aug. 31, in a nine-player trade with the Cleveland Indians, was cause for much excitement in San Diego. He has been among the major leagues’ best pitchers the past three seasons and has not allowed a run in his final nine innings — a seven-inning shutout on Sept. 13, a scoreless inning on Sept. 23 and Tuesday’s scoreless inning.
It was the work he has done the past three weeks so far only resulting in frustration that had Clevinger wiping away tears as he choked out his words at one point after Tuesday’s game.
“It’s been a lot,” he said. “This is what you play for. This is why you go through the process. This is why you give up our offseason, time away from family. So it’s been a lot.”