The San Diego Padres had high hopes this weekend against the Dodgers, but King couldn't back them up.
The San Diego Padres have a rotation problem, and starter Michael King is one of several hurlers trying to keep the Padres over .500. But King has had a rough June, according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, and yesterday he helped trigger an important loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers as he lost the strike zone in the fourth inning.
The result was three walks to go with a HBP, and the Dodgers got a gift run. Mookie Betts took advantage of the traffic with a two-run single after that, and the result was a 4-1 deficit that the Padres couldn’t over come as they scored just one more run and lost the rubber game of the series.
“Mechanical breakdown,” said King. “I’ve got to do a little dive into that and see where it went wrong.”
Manager Craig Stammen also acknowledged the obvious, but the damage happened so quickly that there was little he could do about it in the moment.
“He just kind of lost the strike zone,” said manager Craig Stammen.
King also had some communication issue with his catcher, according to Cassavell. The problem popped up in the fourth inning, when Rodolfo Duran had to lunge to capture a King changeup that appeared to nick the inside corner with the count at 3-2 against Freddy Freeman, and the result was the controversial walk that got a run home for LA.
“Set up away, missed in -- it’s hard for a catcher to realize,” King said about the mistake pitch. “From my vantage point, I feel like I can see it better. It went through my head to challenge it, but I wasn’t fully committed to it. … Then I thought about it later to be like: 3-2, bases loaded, even if I’m wrong, the team’s probably not mad at me for challenging that one. So, yeah, that’s going to eat at me.”
Duran had a different take on it, as both pitcher and catcher expressed regret over not challenging the call.
“That’s on me,” Durán said. “I need to do a better job with it.”
The loss hurt, but the take on the homestand depends on the old glass half-full vs. half-empty argument. The optimists can take away a 4-2 homestand against the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, while those with a more negative slant may choose to focus on the Padres being a bubble team right now in the wild-card race.
