MUSGROVE LOOKS TO SUSTAIN SUCCESS
Today’s Padres starter allowed 2 runs in 13 innings in his two postseason starts, both series clinchers
About an hour before the Padres played Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Joe Musgrove was talking about Game 3.
“Could be really important,” he said Wednesday afternoon.
He meant if the Padres couldn’t get a split at home and were down two games to zero as the series moved to Philadelphia.
They did win. And today’s game is still really important.
There is no possibility of a Champagne shower after this start for the big right-hander from El Cajon, who has started both of the Padres’ series-clinching games this postseason. But neither is there any way to downplay the importance of today’s game against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
“I feel like this game is every bit as big as those elimination games,” Musgrove said Thursday. “You look at it like an at-bat — that 1-1 pitch is like a 1-1 series. It’s a really big game to get some momentum, especially on the road here. We know if we win one of these games, especially this first one, it guarantees us an opportunity to go back home. There’s a lot of things that add up and make this scenario what it is.”
If his third postseason start is like the first two, the Padres will be thrilled.
Musgrove threw seven shutout innings against the Mets in Game 3 of the wild-card series and allowed the Dodgers two runs in six innings in Game 4 of the Division Series.
“I think the approach stays the same,” Musgrove said. “Things that I’ve learned about myself over the course is the process of getting ready for the game is always the most stressful part. The anticipation, the nerves, all that stuff settles in. But for me it all seems to go away once that first pitch is thrown and we’re under way. Being able to realize that and keep that in perspective, that and you’ve just got to make it to that first pitch and stay calm. That’s the most difficult part. But once I’m out there, I feel like I’m at home.”
At the end of an adventurous season, Musgrove has so far soaked it all in while stepping up.
He was arguably the National League’s best pitcher for more than two months and then was rather middling while he worked through illness, fatigue and a midsummer contract negotiation.
He then closed strong enough to become just the 13th pitcher in Padres history to finish a season
with 30 starts, at least 10 wins and a sub-3.00 ERA.
Today’s game is a starting pitcher rematch, as Musgrove and Phillies lefthander Ranger Suarez were on the mound June 23 in San Diego as well. Suarez, who had a 4.61 ERA over his final eight starts, allowed the Padres two runs over 71⁄3 innings that night, while Musgrove never gave up more runs in a game this season than the six the Phillies scored against him. But he had allowed a run on two singles and a wild pitch and had thrown just 63 pitches when the sixth inning began. With a two-run homer by Kyle Schwarber and a three-run homer by J.T. Realmuto, the Phillies led 6-1 when Musgrove departed at the end of that inning.
“Up until that point, I felt I controlled the zone pretty well,” Musgrove recalled Thursday. “Good approach to the guys. Just as the outing went on, I just was tired and left a few pitches out over the heart of the plate. … I think it’s really going to be bearing down the stretch of that outing, that last inning or two of really executing pitches and not leaving those hanging ones over the plate.”
That game ended a streak of 12 quality starts to begin the season and raised what had been a NL-leading 1.59 ERA to 2.12.
Musgrove would follow that with two seven-inning outings, including one in which he allowed one hit while shutting out the Giants. But in 11 starts from July 13 through Sept. 11, he had a 5.25 ERA.
He acknowledged being tired for a time, and he was dealing with contract talks that lasted far longer than he had hoped. On July 29, a five-year, $100 million deal was essentially agreed to, and the pact was officially announced three days later.
Musgrove continued to tinker with mechanics and the grip on his slider. He generally throws six pitches at least 5 percent of the time, so he got by while that go-to pitch was being nursed along and yielding a .357 batting average over that 11-start period. The cutter and curveball became more prominent weapons.
“I look back at the middle months where I struggled,” said Musgrove, who finished with a 2.93 ERA. “And if I don’t go through those struggles and make the adjustments or try something different, the way I attack hitters, working something a little different, using other pitches more often, I don’t think I’m as well-rounded of a pitcher now if I don’t go through those moments. As much as you’d like to dominate all year long, those moments of struggle help shape you for the biggest moments of the year.”
Like now. And maybe more.
The Padres would love to wrap up the NLCS as soon as possible and have all their starters fresh for the World Series, which begins Oct. 28. But Musgrove, who thinks about such things, has already envisioned that his second start in this series could be the ultimate start in this series.
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like come Game 7,” he said. “But it (would) probably be me on short rest.”