Good news for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani as they prepare to face the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, which begins on October 5. Ahead of the series, it was revealed that one of the Friars’ starting pitchers will need elbow surgery and won’t be available for the playoffs.
According to recent statements from Padres General Manager A.J. Preller, the team will be without Joe Musgrove, who requires Tommy John surgery, effectively ending his 2024 MLB season. According to StatMuse, Shohei Ohtani is 1-8 with an RBI in 9 plate appearances against Joe Musgrove.
Joe Musgrove was expected to pitch for the San Diego Padres in the 2024 MLB NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as he was part of the Padres’ starting rotation alongside Cease, King, Darvish, and Perez.
It’s worth noting that the Padres will play the first two games of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium, before heading to Petco Park for Games 3 and 4, where the team had already devised a ‘strategy’ to block rival fans from attending.
Joe Musgrove’s 2024 MLB Season
This was Musgrove’s fourth season with the Padres, but his 2024 campaign won’t end as successfully as last year, when he finished 10-3. In 2022, he also went 10-7, but this season he will have to settle for a 6-5 record across 19 starts due to the announcement of his surgery.
One of his standout years with the Friars was in 2022, when he posted a 2.93 ERA, the lowest of his career that began in 2016 with the Houston Astros. Musgrove’s final game of the 2024 MLB season was a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card Round.