The San Diego Padres got a fine start from Michael King as they continue to hang in the wild-card race.
The San Diego Padres have been dealing with poor starts from the two big starters they acquired at the deadline, but last night Michael King reminded everyone that he’s still the leading man in the rotation as he pitched the Padres to a 3-2 win over the Houston Astros.
It wasn’t easy, as runs were at a premium, especially in the later innings. The Padres struck first with a run in the opening inning as they took advantage of a pair of walks from Houston starter Paul Lambert, with Jake Cronenworth adding a single as Jackson Merrill got the run home on a fielder’s choice groundout.
Houston countered in the second with a solo homer from Taylor Trammell, and King indicated that it was his one bad moment in an otherwise fine start.
“I made a mistake with Trammell … he was on the heater,’’ King said in a followup piece from Jay Paris of MLB.com. “But besides that, it was pretty good.”
The Padres retook the lead in the third with a run, then padded it in the fourth with another. A solo homer by Merrill made it 2-1, and the Padres took advantage of some sloppy fielding as Gavin Sheets scored via an error from shortstop Jeremy Pena.
That made it 3-1, but after that the scoring stopped and the bullpens took over. King’s final line featured just three hits and a walk to go with six strikeouts, and Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon combined to get through the seventh and eighth innings without allowing a run.
That made it Mason Miller time, but this particular save came with a bit of nail biting. Miller hit Christian Walker with a pitch to open the inning, and Walker took second on a wild pitch from the reliever.
A two-out, pinch-hit single from Yainer Diaz got him home to make it 3-2, but Miller buckled down and ended the game by getting another Houston pinch hitter, Lamonte Wade Jr., to ground out to give the Padres the win.
The victory put the Pads back within a game of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the wild-card race and the NL West standings, with the Philadelphia Phillies also in the mix with the same record as Arizona. Randy Vasquez will be on the mound tonight against Cristian Javier as the Padres try to draw even with at least one of the two contenders ahead of them.
