ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Mike Clevinger stretched his legs on the visiting dugout steps at Angel Stadium, then bounced onto the field, leapt over the first-base line, grabbed the ball behind the mound and rocked back and forth through his first warm-up pitches as a Padre.
His first official pitch: A 98-mph four-seamer that missed low and away.
Indeed, the 29-year-old was both a ball of energy and just a tad off Thursday evening. Andrew Heaney, on the other hand, was mostly on point in seven shutout innings in spoiling Clevinger's Padres debut in a 2-0 loss.
It was just the second time that the Padres had been blanked this season, the other against the Dodgers. Three hits also matched a low for an offense that leads the majors with 222 runs scored.
In other words, on most days six innings of two-run ball will do just fine and Clevinger is generally good for that.
After all, his 2.97 ERA since 2017 was the seventh-lowest in baseball coming into Thursday's start, behind Jacob deGrom (2.08), Clayton Kershaw (2.64), Hyun-jin Ryu (2.71), Max Scherzer (2.73), Justin Verlander (2.82) and former Indians teammate Corey Kluber (2.83).
But pitching for the first time since Aug. 26, Clevinger struck out a season-low two batters and didn't throw a perfect inning until his sixth and final frame of the game.
The leadoff hitter even reached base in the first four frames. Andrelton Simmons cashed in Jared Walsh's leadoff double in the third inning and Justin Upton plated Anthony Rendon after Wil Myers' diving attempt in right field played a leadoff hit into a triple.
Three double plays helped Clevinger escape further trouble: Rendon's grounder to end the first and Nola completing strike-him-out-throw-him-outs in the second and fifth innings.
In the end, Clevinger walked off the mound with just 56 of his 87 pitches _ which ranged from 98-mph fastballs to high-70s curves to low-80s sliders and 88-mph cutters _ landing for strikes.
Drafted by the Angels a year after Clevinger (who was later flipped to the Indians), Heaney picked up where he left off his last start (7 2/3 IP, 1 ER) with seven innings of three-hit ball.
The left-hander struck out six and didn't allow a runner to advance past second base.
The Padres' best chance to score came and went in the sixth when rookie Jake Cronenworth _ already with a single to extend his on-base streak to 19 straight games _ struck out with runners on first and second to end the threat.
