NEW YORK – Pitcher Alex Cobb was dropped from Cleveland’s American League Championship Series roster on Tuesday after he got hurt yet again in the opener, leaving the Guardians in search of a Game 5 starter against the New York Yankees.
“It’s been a challenging year. Timing of this one coming in the postseason makes it extra difficult,” Cobb said. “It’s a moment I’ve been waiting for my whole career and to not be able to contribute — to put the team in a hole yesterday was challenging.”
Cobb left Monday’s 5-2 loss after 2 2/3 innings. The 37-year-old right-hander is ineligible to pitch for the remainder of the postseason.
“He was diagnosed with a lower back strain,” manager Stephen Vogt said before Cleveland dropped to 0-2 in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday with a 6-3 loss. “This type of injury would be a full blown IL stint, and with the timing of the year, the chances of him pitching again were very, very, very slim.”
Cobb was replaced on the roster by Ben Lively, a 32-year-old right-hander who was Cleveland’s winningest pitcher this season at 13-10 with a 3.81 ERA in 29 starts.
“We don’t know what we’re going to have,” Vogt said. “Alex was going to start Game 5. Now we have to figure out today knowing that we have six more games to cover.”
Lively and left-hander Gavin Williams are candidates to start Game 3 on Thursday in Cleveland.
Cobb pitched just 22 innings over five games this year, including the regular season and playoffs.
A 2023 All-Star, Cobb had hip surgery on Oct. 31 and hadn’t yet returned to the mound when he was acquired by Cleveland from San Francisco at the July 30 trade deadline.
He made his season debut Aug. 9 and was sidelined after two games by a torn nail on his right index finger. He didn’t allow an earned run over six innings in his Sept. 1 return against Pittsburgh, then went back on the injured list with a blister on his right middle finger that ended his regular season.
Cobb went 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA in the playoffs. He received a $10 million salary this year under a club option that was exercised and can become a free agent after the World Series.
Lively last pitched Sept. 28 against Houston on the next-to-last day of the regular season.
“I’m just staying on the same workout program as I was when I was starting: workout day, heavy bullpen day mixed in between and just try to stay built up,” Lively said.
He has faced the Yankees once, on May 19 last year for Cincinnati, when he allowed a home run to Aaron Judge in the first inning 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.
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