CLEVELAND — After two days without a game, the Padres are playing two games within one day.
Mike Clevinger made his season debut, and the Padres beat the Guardians, 5-4, in the first of those games Wednesday at damp and chilly Progressive Field.
The second game, technically the makeup of Tuesday’s rainout, was scheduled to begin shortly after 2 p.m. PT.
It was a damp 51 degrees, and fog obscured the tops of downtown buildings here as Clevinger took the mound in a major league game for the first time in 19 months.
A much as he tried and as much manager Bob Melvin attempted to will Clevinger through five innings, the right-hander fell an out short.
He finished having thrown 95 pitches. When the two runners he left on base for Steven Wilson scored, Clevinger’s final line had him allowing three runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out four.
Nabil Crismatt worked the sixth and seventh innings, allowing a run, Luis Garcia pitched a perfect eighth, and Taylor Rogers retired the Guardians’ 2-3-4 hitters in order for his 10th save.
The Padres led 3-0 in the third inning and answered the Guardians’ two-run fifth inning, which tied the game 3-3, by scoring twice in the sixth.
One-out walks by Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado and a two-out single by Eric Hosmer gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Cronenworth reached on an error in the third inning and Machado followed with a home run on a 108-mph drive so much on a line that it barely cleared the 19-foot wall in left field.
Clevinger’s last appearance was his start in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 6, 2020. He had Tommy John surgery a month later and spent last season working his way back. He made one start in spring training before being shut down with a right knee sprain.
As luck would have it, the series he had hoped to pitch in since the schedule came out, coincided with his being ready to return.
So it was in the city he pitched for 4 1/2 seasons, before the Padres sent three major leaguers and three of their top 11 prospects to the Guardians to get Clevinger at the trade deadline in 2020, that he made his fifth regular season start for the Padres.
Clevinger retired the first two batters he faced, walked the third and ended the first inning on a fly ball to left field.
He needed just eight pitches to get through the second inning, but a 33-pitch third inning jeopardized his being around long enough to figure in the decision.
The Guardians scored just once but made Clevinger work in the third, fouling off six two-strike pitches. Three of those were in a nine-pitch at-bat by Richie Palacios, which Palacios ended by slapping a single to the open spot at shortstop to put runners at the corners with no outs.
Clevinger got leadoff hitter Myles Straw on a fly ball too shallow in right field to drive in the run before Steven Kwan grounded a single past a diving Cronenworth to score Luke Maile from third. Strikeouts of No. 3 hitter Jose Ramirez, the American League Player of the Month in April, and cleanup hitter Owen Miller ended the inning.
Clevinger retired the Guardians in order on 13 pitches in the fourth, and no one was warming up in the Padres’ bullpen.
Steven Wilson began to throw as the bottom of the fifth began and Clevinger retired Palacios on a groundout to bring up the top of the order.
Clevinger walked Straw and then got the second out on a fly ball to left, and with Ramirez coming up Melvin stick with his starter.
But a five-pitch walk ended Clevinger’s day. He had thrown 28 more pitches than in his final rehab start.
As he left the mound, he put his glove over his face and appeared to yell into it.
Wilson replaced Clevinger and walked Miller before Josh Naylor singled to bring in both runners who reached on Clevinger walks and tie it 3-3.
Doubles by Ha-seong Kim and Austin Nola, a single by Matt Beaty and sacrifice fly by Cronenworth put the Padres back up, 5-3, in the sixth inning.
Naylor, who came to Cleveland as part of the Clevinger trade, played a part in the Guardians getting a run back in the seventh. Miller walked with one out, went to third on Naylor’s double and scored on a groundout by Amed Rosario.
