Jorge Castillo, ESPN Writer Oct 15, 2024, 4:07pm ET
Close ESPN Baseball Reporter. He covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK – One day after Game 1 of the Cleveland Guardians’ American League Championship Series began, Alex Cobb’s season has ended due to an acute left lower back strain, the team announced Tuesday.
The Guardians replaced the right-hander on their roster with Ben Lively, another right-hander, making Cobb ineligible to be on the team’s World Series roster should they advance.
Lively led the Guardians in wins during the regular season, going 13-10 with a 3.81 ERA in 29 starts.
The move would require approval from Major League Baseball because only injured players are allowed to be removed from the roster.
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Cobb, 37, left Monday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Yankees after just two innings.
“It’s been a challenging year. The timing of this year in the postseason makes it even more difficult,” Cobb said. “It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for my whole career, and I wasn’t able to contribute to it, and putting the team in a hole yesterday was difficult.”
Manager Steven Vogt said Cobb had a tight left hip and was dealing with back spasms.
“That type of injury is going to be a complete undertaking in the NFL,” Vogt said before Cleveland fell to 0-2 in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday with a 6-3 loss. “With the time of year, his chances of participating again were very slim.”
Lively left-hander Gavin Williams is a candidate to start Game 3 on Thursday in Cleveland.
“We don’t know what we’re going to get,” Vogt said. “Alex was going to start game five. Now we have to figure out today knowing we have six more games to cover.”
The deal caps off a turbulent season for Cobb, who made just five appearances for Cleveland this season after being acquired from the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline — three during the regular season and two in the playoffs.
The 2023 All-Star didn’t make his season debut until Aug. 9 after undergoing hip surgery last October. He landed on the injured list again two more times before the end of the regular season due to a broken fingernail on his right hand and a blister on his right middle finger.
Cobb went 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA in his two postseason appearances with the Guardians.
Lively, 32, did not make the Guardians’ ALDS roster and has not pitched since the next-to-last day of the regular season on Sept. 28. He has never participated in the postseason.
“I just stay on the same workout program I was on when I started: workout day, heavy bull day mixed in between, and just trying to stay built,” Lively said.
Lively has faced the Yankees once, on May 19 of last year for Cincinnati, when he gave up a first-run home run to Aaron Judge and issued a sixth-inning walk to Judge, who scored on Anthony Rizzo’s homer off reliever Ian Gibaut in a 6-2 New York win. .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
