Joe Musgrove injury: Padres starter leaves MLB playoff start against Braves with coach in fourth inning

San Diego Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove was ruled out of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Braves due to an apparent injury. Musgrove's exit came in the fourth inning after he threw a 76.8 mph curveball to Marcell Ozuna. Musgrove threw 41 throws on the night: three of those last four throws were his three slowest throws of the game.

It wasn't clear what exactly was bothering Musgrove, but catcher Kyle Higashioka appeared to point toward the dugout before heading to the mound to make sure Musgrove was OK.

The 31-year-old Musgrove was only able to start 19 times this season due to inflammation in his right elbow. He missed several weeks in May and then had to sit out from May 26th to August 12th. When Musgrove was able to pitch, he posted a 3.88 ERA (106 ERA+) and a 4.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio. According to Baseball Reference's calculations, his contributions were worth an estimated 1.7 Wins Above Replacement.

Whatever was bothering Musgrove before his removal seemingly had little impact on his speed or performance heading into the final stages. His fastball averaged 94.4 mph that night, more than an improvement over his season average. Additionally, he held the Braves to one run on one hit and no walks over 3 2/3 innings. Musgrove struck out four of the 12 batters he faced along the way.

The Padres had a 5-1 lead at the time of Musgrove's departure. With a win, San Diego advances to the best-of-five NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Meanwhile, the winner of this series will continue to play for the pennant.

It is too early to say whether Musgrove's future availability will be affected.