• Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterOct 15, 2024, 04:07 PM ET

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      ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.

NEW YORK — A day after starting Game 1 of the American League Championship Series for the Cleveland Guardians, Alex Cobb‘s season is over because of an acute left low back strain, the team announced Tuesday.

The Guardians replaced the right-hander on their roster with Ben Lively, another right-handed starter, making Cobb ineligible to be on the team’s World Series roster should they advance.

Lively led the Guardians in wins during the regular season, going 13-10 with a 3.81 ERA in 29 starts.

The move required approval from Major League Baseball because only injured players are allowed to be removed from the roster.

Cobb, 37, departed Monday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Yankees after just 2⅔ innings. Manager Stephen Vogt said Cobb’s left hip tightened up and he was dealing with back spasms.

“This type of injury would be a full blown IL stint,” Vogt said before Game 2. “And with the timing of the year, the chances of him pitching again were very, very, very slim.

Lively and left-hander Gavin Williams are candidates to start Game 3 on Thursday in Cleveland.

“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.”

The transaction concludes a turbulent season for Cobb, who made just five starts for Cleveland this season after being acquired from the San Francisco Giants at the trade deadline — three during the regular season and two in the playoffs.

The 2023 All-Star didn’t make his season debut until Aug. 9 after undergoing hip surgery last October. He landed on the injured list again two more times before the end of the regular season with a fractured fingernail on his right hand and a blister on his right middle finger.

Cobb went 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA in his two postseason appearances for the Guardians.

Lively, 32, didn’t make the Guardians’ ALDS roster and hasn’t pitched since the next-to-last day of the regular season on Sept. 28. He has never pitched in the postseason.

“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.

Lively has faced the Yankees once, on May 19 last year for Cincinnati, when he allowed Aaron Judge‘s first-inning home run 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.