Things went from bad to worse for San Diego Padres starting pitcher Michael King in their series opener against the New York Mets at Citi Field, Tuesday. King allowed four consecutive singles to start the game and the Mets had an early 1-0 lead. He then got Mark Vientos to bounce into a double play back to the pitcher’s mound was needing one more out to escape the inning with minimal damage.
Instead, Jeff McNeil doubled to drive in two runs and King allowed a two-run home run to the next batter, Brett
Baty, and New York took a 5-0 lead. The home runs continued to fly out of the park during King’s limited time on the mound and the Padres suffered an 8-3 loss to start their final regular season road trip of the 2025 season.
King labored through three-plus innings, and he allowed eight runs on 10 hits. New York slugged four home runs, adding two solo home runs by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso in the bottom of the second inning and a solo home run by Cedric Mullins in the bottom of the fourth before Padres Manager Mike Shildt took King out of the game after 57 pitches.
San Diego hit two early solo home runs, with Jackson Merrill hitting one out to center field in the top of the second inning to make the score, 5-1. Jake Cronenworth hit the second solo home run of the game for the Padres in the top of the third inning, hitting one out to right field to make the score, 7-2. Both of those home runs came off New York starting pitcher Clay Holmes, who pitched four innings before being replaced by Sean Manaea.
Kyle Hart came in to pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning for San Diego, looking to slow the New York offense and he did just that. Hart pitched two innings and struck out five of the six batters he faced. Yuki Matsui followed Hart, coming on in the bottom of the sixth. He pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings and was replaced in the bottom of the seventh by Bradgley Rodriguez for the final out of the frame. Rodriguez returned in the bottom of the eighth and pitched a scoreless inning to keep the Mets from adding on.
Despite the efforts of Hart, Matsui and Rodriguez, the Padres could not get any sustained offense after the Cronenworth home run in the top of the third inning. San Diego added five hits over the final six innings of the contest. Ramón Laureano hit a double in the top of the fourth inning and Manny Machado singled in the top of the sixth inning. Freddy Fermin hit a solo home run in the top of the eighth inning to cut the deficit to 8-3 and Luis Arraez singled later in the inning, for the only multi-hit frame for San Diego. Merrill recorded the only hit in the top of the ninth with a two-out double to right field, and he was the only Padres batter to have multiple hits in the game.
San Diego will try to bounce back against New York, Wednesday at 4:10 p.m.
