San Diego Padres experience key injuries to starting rotation

As the San Diego Padres proceed in the National League Divisional Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, they will have to do so without two of their starting pitchers at the top of their rotation. Ace Dinelson Lamet of Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic is out with a biceps injury, while Mike Clevinger of Jacksonville, Florida left game one of the Padres matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday with an undisclosed ailment.

Clevinger was not on the Padres roster for the National League Wildcard Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He left the Padres game on September 23 with an elbow problem and had not pitched since Tuesday.

During the regular season, Clevinger, who was acquired from the Cleveland Indians at the trade deadline, had a record of three wins and two losses with an earned run average of 3.02 in eight games in 2020. Lamet had a record of three wins, one loss, an earned run average of 2.09 in 12 games with 93 strikeouts in only 69 innings.

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In the four Padres postseason games to date, they used eight pitchers in the first game, and nine pitchers each in the last three. To put everything into perspective, Craig Stammen leads the Padres in innings pitched with four. The Padres have already used 15 pitchers.

The Padres approach worked effectively against the Cardinals where they won two of three games. However, it did not work in game one against the Dodgers. On Tuesday in Texas, a 5-1 Los Angeles win, Garrett Richards and Matt Strahm were ineffective in their outings. They gave up a combined four earned runs, four hits and three walks in only one inning combined.

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