A little more than two months ago, Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta was so frustrated with his recovery from a right elbow flexor injury he stomped off the mound in the middle of an inning during a minor-league rehab start for their Single-A affiliate.
That game in Lake Elsinore, CA is just 75 miles north of Petco Park, where Tuesday evening Pivetta will start Game 3 of the Padres’ National League Division Series against the Brewers. Milwaukee leads the best-of-five series 2-0, a game away from ending the Padres’ season.
“I couldn’t ask for a better guy on the mound,” third baseman Manny Machado said Monday during a workout day at Petco. “Season on the line, the energy that he brings, the passion that he brings to pitching, obviously what he’s dealt with all year, wanting to be here. He’s one of the best competitors we have in our game.”
Pivetta is trying to save his club’s season, just as he was trying to save his own season during and after that Aug. 4 outing. He’s making only his fifth start this year, and second in the postseason since he allowed one run across 3 1/3 innings when the Padres clinched Game 2 against the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card Series last week.
It’s been quite a journey.
“I think if you look back at it, when I was really grinding on my rehab process and wondering if I was going to be able to pitch again this year, I looked forward to these moments,” Pivetta said. “I’m very grateful to be able to be the pitcher out there, to get this start. I’m very confident in the team that I have behind me, and it brings me a lot of joy because I love to do what I do.”
There’s no margin for error. The Padres lost the first two games of the series in Milwaukee’s American Family Field by a combined score of 7-5, with two heartbreaking one-run defeats. Both outcomes could have swung the other way, but didn’t.
Ty France’s possible game-winning homer during the ninth inning of Game 1 on Saturday deflected off the roof rafters into the waiting glove of left-fielder Jackson Chourio for the out discussed throughout the country. Chourio hit a two-run homer and William Contreras smacked a solo shot to win it, 3-2.
On Sunday, Machado was thrown out at third while trying to take an extra base on a run-scoring single. Second baseman Jake Cronenworth bobbled a grounder and was charged with both a fielding and throwing error on a play that cost the Padres a crucial run.
Closer Mason Miller, asked to record the last six outs, had no trouble retiring the side in order in the eighth, but imploded in the ninth when he walked the bases loaded and allowed Chourio’s two-run single to win the game, 4-3.
Was Miller tipping his pitches, a rumor that made its way around social media? No, Miller said.
“I didn’t do my job today,” Miller said. “Instead of going home with a tie we’re in a hole. So, I feel pretty bad.”
But Miller said he’s ready to go at it again on Tuesday.
“It’s not the first save I’ve blown and it probably won’t be the last,” he said. “We have another shot to play. We wouldn’t be in this position in this series if we hadn’t been able to move past difficulties and challenges. We have to have the ability to turn the page. That goes for the group, but that also goes for an individual like me.”
It also goes for a Pivetta, the former Red Sox star, who the Padres signed to a four-year, $55 million deal ahead last season. Because Pivetta had a history of elbow problems in Boston, the Padres gave him an ability to opt out after this season and sign elsewhere, but with a catch.
If he went on the injured list for 130 consecutive days during any portion of his first two San Diego seasons, the opt-out would convert to a $14 million club option without a buyout. Pivetta injured the elbow during his fourth start of the season.
Like teammate Joe Musgrove — recovering from Tommy John surgery and other maladies in his right elbow — Pivetta’s rehab progress was arduous. By early August the progress was so slow, Pivetta had his meltdown on the Lake Elsinore mound. He realized the 130-day deadline was approaching and he wasn’t going to make it.
During the fourth inning that day, Pivetta had recorded two outs, but walked off the mound in the middle of an at bat and headed to the dugout, clearly frustrated. Though he went to the batting cage and tossed another 20 pitches without incident, the Padres shut him down for another few weeks.
The 130-day deadline came and went on Aug. 22, and the opt-out clause converted to the club option. That won’t be resolved until after the World Series.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller didn’t comment. Pivetta could have quit, but he didn’t. He kept working.
“It’s been a remarkable process, a remarkable journey that he’s had this entire season, going from our opening day starter to leaving the game with an elbow injury,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Honestly, everybody probably thinking the worst, that he’s done for the season.
“Then him working his tail off, believing he can make it back, getting back, having a rough first rehab outing, but still believing in himself, still believing that he’s OK. Then being strong enough in the mind to overcome some of that stuff and strong enough in the body too to come back and be one of our best pitchers here once he came back in the month of September.”
Pivetta has pitched well since returning to the mound in early September. In his four starts, he’s 2-0, having allowed three runs on 15 hits with two walks and 19 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings, dropping his overall ERA to 2.86 for eight starts.
In his four September starts, he’s averaged close to five innings. Given the depth Stammen has had to go into his bullpen for the first two NLDS games, he will take it.
“Without Nick, would we have gotten to the playoffs? Without Nick, would we have had home-field advantage in the Wild Card? Probably not,” Stammen said. “He’s a big part of us having a lot of success down the stretch.”
