SAN DIEGO — The 2011 graduate of Grossmont High School in El Cajon was in a groove. Joe Musgrove had retired the first 12 batters in his first postseason start before allowing a leadoff single to Pete Alonso in the fifth.
Starling Marte walked on a full-count curveball leading off the seventh for New York's other baserunner. He was the only Met to advance past first, moving to second on Francisco Lindor's ground out, but remained there.
Musgrove was warming up for the sixth inning when New York manager Buck Showalter came out of the dugout and spoke to first base umpire Alfonso Marquez.
All six umpires huddled and then went to the mound as Marquez, the crew chief, felt Musgrove's glove, cap and ears, apparently searching for any illegal sticky substances. None were found.
In his postgame news conference, Showalter said he asked for the check because "we have privy to a lot of things that go in that direction."
"I love him as a pitcher, always have," Showalter said. "That's the only thing I kind of feel bad about it, but it won't cast anything. He's too good a pitcher, and they're too good -- without getting into a lot of things, the spin rates and different things that I'm sure you're all aware of when you see something that jumps out at you -- I get a lot of information in the dugout that -- we certainly weren't having much luck the way it was going, that's for sure.
"I'm charged with doing what's best for the New York Mets. If it makes me look however it makes me look or whatever, I'm going to do it every time and live with the consequences. I'm not here to not hurt somebody's feelings. I'm going to do what's best for our players and the New York Mets. I felt like that was best for us right now.
"There's some pretty obvious reasons why it was necessary."
Melvin said, "Look, so I tend to be a high road guy, and I'm going to, but the problem I have is that Joe Musgrove is a man of character. Questioning his character to me, that's the part I have a problem with, and I'm here to tell everybody that Joe Musgrove is as above board as any pitcher I know, any player I know, and unfortunately that happened to him because the reception that he got after that was not warranted."
Musgrove said he thought Showalter "was checking for some kind of substance that was helping me spin the ball or something. I've seen it before. I think he's done it before."
"I don't have much to say about it," Musgrove said. "It was at the point in the game when it happened, I was so dialed in already. All my pitches felt good. I felt like I was executing. So it almost just kind of lit a fire under me.
"At that point, I was so dialed in and so focused on getting outs, it didn't really affect me too much."
Musgrove was replaced by Robert Suarez who pitched a perfect eighth inning for the Padres, striking out two. Josh Hader pitched a perfect ninth in his first appearance of the series, including striking out leadoff hitter Tomas Nido.
“I mean I get it dude,” Musgrove said on the live television broadcast after the final out. “They’re on their last leg. They’re desperate. They’re doing everything they can to get me out of the game at that point.”
Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the rival Dodgers will be played in Los Angeles on Tuesday, October 11 with first pitch scheduled for 6:37 p.m. PT.
WATCH: Joe Musgrove celebrates after the win and talks about the importance of playoffs in San Diego: