PITTSBURGH — The San Diego Padres embarked on a crucial portion of their season with dark clouds hanging over PNC Park and a reason for optimism looming on the horizon.
Veteran starter Joe Musgrove is expected to return from a lengthy stay on the injured list in the coming days, possibly as early as this weekend against the Miami Marlins. Musgrove last pitched for the Padres on May 26, before he was shut down with elbow trouble. The specific date of his comeback remains to be determined, and Musgrove — who threw 46 pitches in a rehab start last weekend — will be on a pitch count. But, especially soon, the Padres could use him.
“Anytime you get Joe back, it’s helpful,” manager Mike Shildt said. “But we are going on a string of a lot of games.”
Shildt spoke a few hours before that challenge grew at least slightly more complicated. Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Padres began the first of 27 games in 28 days. Just 17 minutes later, not long after Dylan Cease completed a scoreless first inning on 14 pitches, a seemingly interminable weather delay commenced.
There would be no subsequent no-hitter. Less than two weeks ago, Cease did not throw a pitch before he took the mound and went on to make rain-delayed history. When play finally resumed Tuesday — after a two-hour, 40-minute intermission that saw the warning track drain in what felt like slow motion — the Padres were compelled to put long reliever Bryan Hoeing on the mound instead of Cease. It was 9:41 p.m., and the question of why the game had been allowed to start shortly before 7 hung in the air.
“We had differing forecasts — one having rain arrive sometime shortly after 7, as it ended up arriving, and several others that had it arriving later, closer to 8 o’clock, even after 8 o’clock,” Matt McKendry, Major League Baseball’s vice president for umpire operations, later told a pool reporter.
“Obviously, the more pessimistic forecast came through, and it started raining much earlier than what we would’ve liked.”
In the end, it was the Padres who successfully adapted, just as they have done throughout the season. The latest evidence came at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, when they secured a 6-0 shutout of the Pirates.
“Our guys love to play, so I knew they were going to come out regardless of circumstances and be ready to compete,” Shildt said.
Hoeing, who was acquired from the Marlins last week, wound up retiring 11 batters without allowing a run. Shildt deployed four more relievers to hold Pittsburgh scoreless over the final 4 1/3 innings. Ample run support arrived in the top of the fifth, when six consecutive batters — including utilityman Tyler Wade, who started in place of shortstop Ha-Seong Kim (right triceps soreness) — reached base. San Diego came away with four runs and tacked on two more in the ninth.
Most importantly, both teams avoided injury while playing on a slicker-than-normal surface. The umpiring crew originally attempted to restart the game at 8:15 p.m., only to see the warning track still resembled a swamp. More than an hour later, when the field had been deemed less than ideal but safe enough, the bottom of the second began. Moments later, Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill ranged to the warning track to snag a fly ball.
“I told (Shildt), I said, ‘Dude, I don’t care if there’s a lake out there or a river. I’m going to play,’” Merrill said.
“Every win is important for us right now,” said designated hitter Donovan Solano, who drove in four runs and matched his career high with four hits. “Everybody here wanted to play tonight.”
Don’t worry… this is a baseball update 🤭 pic.twitter.com/xDKvA6KnqK
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) August 7, 2024
The Padres are enjoying the sport as much as they have all year. They improved just past midnight to a season-best 10 games over .500. They moved into possession of the National League’s first wild-card spot. And they are 62-52, including going 12-3 since the All-Star break, despite missing Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. for chunks of the season.
They might only be getting stronger. An aggressively upgraded bullpen appears as formidable as any in the majors. The lineup has been the most contact-prone in the sport, regularly producing innings of snowballing offense. Solano, a minor-league signee with a .314 average, has been one of multiple shrewd pickups.
If there is a vulnerable area, it is the rotation. Even that unit has more than stayed afloat, though, with a 3.77 ERA since either Musgrove or Darvish last pitched for the team in late May. (Darvish, who also has experienced elbow problems this season, remains on the restricted list as he tends to a private family matter.) However, San Diego added only one starter, veteran Martín Pérez, at the trade deadline while sending away another rookie in Adam Mazur. Pérez could be a sizable upgrade over Mazur, but Tuesday brought the first of nine consecutive games without a break. And after an off day next week, the Padres will play 18 days in a row.
It will be interesting to see how they navigate this upcoming schedule. Michael King has been arguably San Diego’s most valuable starter, and he will pitch Wednesday after skipping a start because of a bruised calf muscle. Even before he sustained that injury, the Padres had sought to limit his workload and provide periodic days of extra rest in King’s first full season as a big-league starter.
Musgrove could help in that endeavor as, perhaps, a sizable upgrade over 25-year-old Randy Vásquez. Musgrove will first have to continue building his stamina. The right-hander last week threw two innings in a simulated game against minor leaguers in Arizona. Sunday, he progressed to 3 1/3 innings with Lake Elsinore. Musgrove had been penciled in for about three innings, but he was efficient enough that he also got the start of a fourth.
He looked as ready as the Padres could have hoped. Musgrove touched 96 mph, faster than he’d thrown any pitch in the majors in this injury-interrupted season. The former All-Star displayed the kind of command that often was missing as he compiled a 5.66 ERA before he went on the injured list (for a second time) in late May. It was a relatively brief performance against A-ball hitters, but the Padres are willing to bet Musgrove can be reasonably efficient while working with about 60 pitches in his next start.
The timing of that start could be altered by Tuesday’s events. Shildt said Cease, depending on how he recovers, might pitch next on less than regular rest. The manager also indicated that starting Cease as soon as Thursday’s series finale is unlikely; that slot could instead go to Vásquez, who threw a bullpen session Tuesday. Cease, meanwhile, said he expected to start against Miami on relatively regular rest. Depending on when Cease pitches, Musgrove’s official return could come sometime next week instead of this weekend. (The Padres had anticipated the latter scenario before Tuesday’s game.)
“If (Cease) comes back earlier, it affects a lot of people’s timelines,” Shildt said. “We’ll reconfigure it and … take all the variables and make our best decision.”
In the end, any shuffling might not be all that disruptive. Musgrove demonstrated his flexibility last weekend when a scheduled nighttime flight to Texas was delayed and then canceled — the pitcher had planned to make a rehab start with Double-A San Antonio — and the Padres audibled to having him make a shorter flight the next morning to Fresno, Calif.
There, on Sunday, Musgrove looked ready to come back.
“Everything worked out not ideally, but it worked out good enough for me to be able to feel good and go out and pitch,” Musgrove said Tuesday afternoon.
Hours later, those words resonated in a broader sense. It poured at PNC Park. Then, nothing was ideal. Yet the Padres successfully waited out a lengthy delay before prevailing for the 12th time in 15 games. A challenging schedule awaits, but for now, even the weather does not seem to be slowing one of baseball’s hottest and most adaptable teams.
“We won a baseball game tonight,” Merrill said. “That’s all that matters.”
(Photo of Bryan Hoeing: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)
