Padres notes: Clevinger, Manaea staying ready; Nola ’til he can’t; Melvin on Bochy
Manaea #Manaea
Mike Clevinger spent Friday afternoon shagging balls in left field at Citizens Bank Park, tossing the occasional ball into a crowd of mostly Phillies fans to perhaps butter them up ahead of whatever lies ahead for the 31-year-old right-hander.
The time off for Clevinger hasn’t been nearly as long as it has for fellow Padres pitcher Sean Manaea, who last pitched Oct. 4 in the penultimate game of the regular season against the Giants.
It’s just felt like it, what with Clevinger allowing five runs — four earned — in 2 2/3 innings in Game 1 of the NLDS Oct. 11 against the Dodgers and hoping that wasn’t his last appearance of the season.
“I’m pretty anxious as it is,” Clevinger said Friday afternoon before Game 3 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park. “Especially in a game like that, the magnitude of that game. That was my redemption game from 2020 and just didn’t go as storybook as possible. Now I get a chance to redeem myself, thanks to how good our team is.”
Exactly how Clevinger gets to redeem himself nobody was willing to say before Friday’s game.
Clevinger threw a 35-pitch bullpen during Thursday’s workout. Manaea has also been throwing bullpens and live batting practices to attempt to stay sharp. Unlike Clevinger, who was left off the wild-card roster while he dealt with an illness, the 30-year-old Manaea has been on the postseason roster in each round, but has not been called out of the bullpen yet.
Because “everything is on the table” for Game 4 pitching plans, as Padres manager Bob Melvin said Friday, there is some thinking both Manaea and Clevinger could see innings Saturday in Game 4, whether one or the other starts or comes in behind an opener.
Friday’s bullpen usage will factor in the decision.
“Just doing what I can throwing,” Manaea said after shagging balls in right field. “The bullpens that I have just try to make them as game-like as possible. Other than that, stay ready for whenever my time comes.”
Nola, all day long?
To date, Austin Nola had caught every inning of the Padres’ nine postseason games and was in the starting lineup Friday. While playing potentially five games in a row if this series goes seven games could push either Jorge Alfaro or rookie Luis Campusano into action before long, Melvin wasn’t conceding that line of thought Friday.
Nola will certainly catch Yu Darvish for Sunday’s day-after-night start as he remains the only catcher to work with the Padres ace.
That would leave Saturday as the best chance for someone other than Nola to work behind the plate, but …
“We’ll see if Noles can get the whole thing,” Melvin said. “If not we’ll make a decision (for Saturday’s) game because Darvish pitches a day game. My guess is their guy is going to catch every game. So we’ll see how tonight goes.”
Their guy is J.T. Realmuto, a three-time All-Star who had a .820 OPS and 22 homers in 139 games this year.
Nola entered Friday with a .321/.375/.393 batting line and five RBIs while hitting predominantly out of the nine-hole.
‘A matter of time’
Bruce Bochy had already been managing the Giants for four years when Melvin began his stay with the Athletics in 2011. The two got two know each other well while managing on opposite ends of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, until Bochy stepped down after the 2019 season.
Melvin figured it wasn’t a full retirement and it wasn’t: Bochy will return to the dugout in 2023 with the Texas Rangers.
“It’s probably a matter of time,” Melvin said. “He was biding his time, doing his grandkid thing and so forth, but when you’re successful and a legend like he is, you’re probably going to get that itch again. So it doesn’t surprise me at all.
“That’s going to be a great spot for him.”
Notable
This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.