Michael King gave the Padres exactly what they needed Friday night: a clean, steady start and a 3-2 win over the Astros.
San Diego has been searching for better outings from the starters it added at the deadline, but King looked like the arm that can still anchor the rotation. He worked through six innings, allowed three hits and a walk, and struck out six as the Padres held on in a tight game.
The Padres got on the board right away in the first inning. They drew a pair of walks off Houston starter Paul Lambert, then Jake Cronenworth singled before Jackson Merrill brought in the run on a fielder’s choice groundout.
Houston answered in the second when Taylor Trammell launched a solo homer, the one mistake King pointed to after the game.
“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.”
San Diego moved back in front in the third, then added another run in the fourth. Merrill delivered the second run with a solo homer, and Gavin Sheets later crossed the plate on an error by shortstop Jeremy Pena to make it 3-1.
From there, the bullpens took over and runs disappeared. Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon handled the seventh and eighth without giving up a score, setting things up for Mason Miller in the ninth.
That last inning got tense. Miller hit Christian Walker with a pitch to start the frame, then watched Walker advance to second on a wild pitch. A two-out pinch-hit single from Yainer Diaz cut the lead to 3-2, but Miller finished the job by getting another Houston pinch hitter, Lamonte Wade Jr., to ground out and seal the win.
In Other News...
Padres Are Betting On A Veteran Bat To Fix One Lineup Problem
The Padres have turned to a familiar kind of midseason fix, agreeing to a major league contract with veteran outfielder Austin Hays as they look to shore up a lineup issue that has lingered all season. A right-handed hitter with nine MLB seasons on his resume, Hays brings experience across the outfield and gives San Diego another option at a time when the club has been searching for more reliable production against left-handed pitching.
For the Padres, the appeal is obvious: add a bat with enough track record to help balance out a lineup that has too often looked vulnerable in those matchups. Hays arrives with the kind of background teams tend to trust when they need immediate help, and his fit will now be judged by whether he can provide the right-handed punch San Diego has been missing. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Move On From Veteran Arm As Rotation Pressure Builds
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Now the focus turns to other arms as the Padres try to sort out their rotation, with Robbie Ray and Casey Mize among the pitchers in the mix. For a team still trying to stabilize its pitching plan, moving on from a veteran name is less about one pitchers exit than about how aggressively the Padres are willing to reshuffle the staff to get better results. [Read more 🡒]
Jackson Merrill Is Giving The Padres Exactly What They Needed
Jackson Merrills recent surge has given the Padres a badly needed lift at the plate, and it showed again in their 3-2 win over the Astros on Aug. 8. Over his last 20 games, he has hit .372 with seven home runs, a stretch that has helped energize an offense fighting to stay in the postseason race and made him one of the most important bats in the lineup.
His contribution in Houston was exactly the kind of timely production the Padres have been searching for, as he drove in runs and launched his 17th homer of the season. For a team trying to keep pace in the playoff chase, Merrills resurgence is more than a hot streak, it is the kind of development that can change the tone of the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]