Michael King gets back on track, Manny Machado homers as Padres sneak past Braves

His peak?

As he's discussed the ups and downs of regaining his feel after an injury-riddled 2025, Michael King has quibbled - in his good-natured way - with the notion that what he did to the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series was a top-end performance.

A 12-strikeout effort in a postseason win is awfully hard to top. Doing so without walking a batter is obviously optimal.

But five hits allowed over seven shutout innings?

King believes he should have gone even deeper and could have allowed even fewer base runners in that October start.

That's the bar that the 31-year-old right-hander sets for himself.

Perhaps he's on the verge of approaching it again.

King snapped out of a five-start slump with seven scoreless innings against the same Braves team he dominated in the postseason nearly two years ago, Manny Machado homered for the second time in three days and the Padres eked out a 1-0 win on Monday in front of a sellout crowd of 42,572 at Petco Park.

Machado's blast to start the fourth inning was only one of four Padres hits, but that's survivable - even if still concerning - when they get starting pitching like they got on Monday and shutdown relief as provided by Adrián Morejón and Mason Miller over the final two frames.

Morejón struck out two of the three batters he faced and Miller logged his second strikeout with runners on first and second to secure King's first win in more than a month.

"Definitely trending," King said after striking out five, scattering six hits and not allowing any free passes. "Still a lot of work to do, but I was tired of getting beat up out there. Got a little bit away from like a mechanical feel and more about just competing out there. I know the mechanics will get there, but I always felt like one of my strengths is being able to figure it out almost on the fly and working with what I got, and I got away from that last four or five starts."

The Padres certainly need King, circa 2024.

The sooner, the better, too.

After all, the rotation began the week ranked 25th in ERA (4.63) and the seams that held sturdy early in the year as Nick Pivetta hit the injured list are beginning to come apart.

Randy Vásquez has a 6.91 ERA over his last six starts, the Padres have resorted to using openers for Griffin Canning (6.64 ERA) and Lucas Giolito (5.16 ERA) and Pivetta and Joe Musgrove are only in the catch phase of a throwing program aimed at a potential late summer return.

Walker Buehler (3.96 ERA) has been a bright spot and Jhony Brito, Germán Márquez and Matt Waldron - all currently at Triple-A El Paso - could all resurface at some point as the Padres piece this season together.

King rediscovering his peak - to date in his ongoing evolution as a starting pitcher - could be a linchpin if the Padres are going to remain in the wild-card race.

"We’ve always, throughout this little stretch that we’ve had where we haven’t played as good as we did at the beginning of the year, we’ve been looking (for King) … to kind of stop it for us, and tonight he definitely did that," Padres manager Craig Stammen said. "That’s what we’ve come accustomed to with him, and his little funk coincided with our team’s funk. So I think going forward we feel really good about Michael every time he goes out there.

"Tonight, he showed why we feel very comfortable with him."

The guy who struck out nine Dodgers over seven shutout innings in a 1-0 win on May 18 could definitely lead a rotation into the postseason.

But a wayward sinker had a lot to do with allowing six homers over five starts (6.41 ERA) heading into Monday's start against the Braves, owners of baseball's best record.

King was much better Monday, even if needed some help from Jackson Merrill in center field - “I hugged him like six times today,” King said - and believes he has a ways to go if he's going to approach his lofty standards.

He retired 10 in a row at one point, finished with six hits allowed and threw 62 of his 93 pitches for strikes while becoming the first Padres pitcher to complete seven innings since his gem last month against the Dodgers.

The things King will likely nitpick?

He had just two strikeouts outside of the three he dished out to reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin, gave up four singles hit 105 mph or harder and had to pitch his way out of more hitter counts than he’d like in lowering his head-to-head ERA against the Braves - including his 2024 postseason win - to 1.33 over 20⅓ innings.

"They had me on opening day last year," King said with a laugh as he deflected to the one clunker (2⅔ IP, 3 ER) in four appearances in his career against the Braves. "Again, not my best (today). It’ll be better."

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 9:55 PM.