'You trust your instincts': Shildt reflects on decision to pull Musgrove 

SAN DIEGO -- The game hung in the balance Tuesday night. Only one run had scored into the top of the fifth inning, but the Cubs had the bases loaded with nobody out.

Joe Musgrove, the Padres’ workhorse starting pitcher, was on the mound. Stephen Kolek, a rookie acquired via the Rule 5 Draft, was warming in the bullpen. Manager Mike Shildt was in the dugout, faced with a thorny decision.

Shildt opted for the rookie with a sinker that might induce a double play. Three pitches later, Christopher Morel was circling the bases after hitting a grand slam that propelled Chicago to a 5-1 victory at Petco Park.

Hundreds of other game decisions Tuesday night drew scant attention. Nobody will debate the right or wrong of them. The one they will debate truly isn’t a matter of right or wrong -- only reasoning and results.

“That’s part of the job,” Shildt said. “That’s something you see, you feel. It wasn’t the ideal situation for anybody, but that is the job.”

Shildt laid out his reasons, not the least of which was Musgrove’s rising pitch count. The right-hander was at 85 pitches when Shildt stepped out of the dugout, including 14 in the fifth inning without recording an out. Musgrove allowed a leadoff home run by Yan Gomes and then walked Ian Happ, yielded a single by Seiya Suzuki and plunked Cody Bellinger to help create the bases-loaded jam.

“He had a little bit of traffic in the first [inning], light traffic in the second, third, fourth,” Shildt said. “Got a ball up to Gomes, put a swing on it. Had a longer at-bat to Happ, a seven-pitch walk. Suzuki gets another base hit.

“He started to have bigger misses. Didn’t locate the first pitch to Belli, and he hit him in the foot. Grazed him, but got him. At that point, you’re sitting there at 85 pitches in the fifth with nobody out. When the misses get a little bigger … it’s a decision that I made. It’s tough to take Joe Musgrove out of any situation, especially bases loaded, knowing the kind of competitor he is.”

Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla made a mound visit after Suzuki’s hit, so Musgrove didn’t have the chance to lobby Shildt to stay in. Once the manager headed to the mound, Musgrove’s workday was over.

“My stuff felt really good, right up until the end, really,” Musgrove said. “The walk really hurts, the hit batter hurts. But other than those two, I thought I threw the ball well. Stuff felt good and sharp. But the walks put me in a position where I’m up around 90 pitches. The first four guys reach base to start that inning. I get the move.

“I would have liked to have faced Morel. I felt I have a lot of weapons for him and [on-deck batter Dansby Swanson]. But you put yourself in that situation, you can’t complain about it.”

Shildt didn’t mention this as part of his reasoning, but Kolek also brought a new look as a rookie who had never faced the Cubs. Where Musgrove used his array of offspeed pitches to keep the Cubs off-balance -- he got at least one swing-and-miss from six pitch types -- Kolek features a fastball a couple ticks harder than Musgrove.

Kolek, however, missed with his first two sinkers to Morel. A sweeper caught too much plate, and Morel pulled it 431 feet to left field.

“Chris put a great swing on it,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “So it was well-timed and a huge hit.”

The Padres, stifled by Ben Brown in his first MLB start, were unable to repeat the comeback drama of the previous night. They will play a rubber game against the Cubs on Wednesday in search of their first series victory of 2024.

That’s where Shildt’s focused turned once the cameras and microphones were put away Tuesday night.

“You trust your instincts,” Shildt said. “You trust what’s going on. You trust what you see. … With nobody out, it’s different than with one or two out. If we have an out or two in the inning, that’s a little bit different story.

“When you’re sitting at 85 and there’s been some stress, you have a chance to get a ground ball -- we took our shot. Wish I could tell you it works every time. Fact of the matter is it works a lot more. But when it doesn’t, there’s a lot more awareness to it.”