Michael King gave the San Diego Padres exactly what they needed against the Houston Astros on Saturday. The right-hander returned to his ace-like form and gave his team six innings of three-hit baseball. Over that span he allowed one run and one walk and struck out six batters. Jackson Merrill provided the offense driving in two runs, one of which came on a solo home run to center field, and the Padres went on to beat the Astros 3-2 at Petco Park.
King looked locked in throughout his start and used
93 pitches to get through the sixth. He threw 64 pitches for strikes and the one run he allowed came on a solo home run to Taylor Trammell in the top of the second inning. The ball was hit out of the yard to tie the game 1-1 at the time, but it was not a bad pitch, it was just a better piece of hitting by the former San Diego farmhand.
The Padres offense made Astros starter Peter Lambert work. They did not score a ton of runs, but he was under attack throughout his outing, which lasted five innings. He allowed three runs, two earned, on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts. It seemed like almost every at-bat was a seven or eight pitch at-bat and many times it was more than that.
San Diego and Houston will meet for the final game of the series in the rubber match today at 5:20 p.m.
Padres News:
- Ethan Salas cannot stop hitting at Triple-A and David Morgan continues to work back to his big-league return.
- Adrian Morejon proves he is as good off the field as he is on it.
- Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune thinks the work the Padres did at the Trade Deadline could help them in the offseason and beyond.
Baseball News:
- Gerrit Cole recorded his 1,000th strikeout as a New York Yankee and helped his team get a win over the Atlanta Braves.
- The Toronto Blue Jays got an extra-innings win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
- Shohei Ohtani helped the Los Angeles Dodgers end their losing streak with a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
- The Athletics ended their losing streak and the Boston Red Sox winning streak with a win on Saturday.
- The Chicago White Sox used a five-run inning to beat the Cleveland Guardians.
- Sandy Alcantara pitched the Miami Marlins to a 7-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
- Jac Caglianone powered the Kansas City Royals past the Chicago Cubs.
