SAN DIEGO — Two weeks ago, in the aftermath of a lopsided defeat, Michael King demonstrated his media savvy and background as a former member of baseball’s most scrutinized organization. An 8-0 shutout had sealed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres. Twenty minutes after manager Mike Shildt pushed back against the idea that his team had been outplayed by the last-place Colorado Rockies, his starting pitcher stood in the home clubhouse and answered a question about the boos that resonated throughout Petco Park.
“I think we’re fully deserving of it if we were playing that poorly,” King said. “I continue to think that we have some smart fans here, and they know when they’re watching bad baseball. So, we got to figure that out.”
Drafted by the Miami Marlins, King was traded in 2017 to the team he grew up cheering for. Another trade came together last December. King soon arrived in sunny San Diego from a decidedly less laid-back environment; parts of five seasons with the New York Yankees had prepared him for plenty of things, including the expectations of a demanding fan base.
“We heard it,” King said after throwing five innings of one-run ball in Monday’s victory over the Marlins. “It’s definitely nice because you obviously want to win at home, and I think that’s the main thing: You got to have a winning record at home and try to be .500 on the road, and I feel like we’re flipped right now. So, if we can keep up the wins at home and keep the wins on the road, it should be a really fun back half of the season.”
Shildt’s optimism — “The sky’s not falling,” he said that day two weeks ago — has not been unfounded. The Padres beat the last-place Marlins 4-0 on Tuesday to win their seventh series in nine tries and improve to 8-4 since the Rockies debacle. San Diego’s 30-28 record is sixth best in what has been an unimpressive National League.
Yet the latest triumph also brought a reminder of what has not happened nearly enough: For the first time this season, the Padres won on three consecutive days at oft-sold-out Petco Park. They are six games over .500 when they play elsewhere. And they are now four games under .500 in the supposedly pitcher-friendly confines of their downtown stadium.
King’s experience in the cauldrons of the American League East influenced his response to a recent discussion between Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla and the team’s starters. Before King’s latest outing, the San Diego rotation had combined for an alarming 4.64 ERA at Petco Park and a 2.97 ERA in all other major-league venues. Much of the damage against Padres starters has come early in home games, adding to the stress on an inconsistent offense.
“It was like, ‘We don’t know exactly what it is because if you actually look at the movement of our pitches and the velo and everything, it’s actually better here than it is on the road,’” King said before Tuesday’s game. “(Niebla) was like, ‘It’s weird because we should be pitching better, and it’s a pitcher’s park, but we have better success on the road.’ And we were strictly talking pitching, so it was more of, like, a, ‘Think on it a little bit and see what you can come up with in terms of why it’s like this and not just say, ‘Oh, it’s bad luck or whatever.’”
“I couldn’t put my finger on it,” King continued. “And I haven’t heard anybody else say exactly why we think that’s the case. But I felt like there was more pressure to, ‘Let’s just perform when we’re at home.’ Like, we got to protect our home turf. And obviously, the Yankees are a tougher series to do it against, but it was like, we got to be handling the team we need to handle.”
King is the gregarious converted reliever the Padres acquired as the centerpiece of their return for superstar slugger Juan Soto. His demeanor inside a clubhouse can belie his competitiveness on the field. In Cincinnati last week, when Shildt went to the mound with two outs in the seventh, King did not look at his manager as he unhappily surrendered the baseball and walked off the field. (The two men later talked things out.)
In Monday’s 2-1 win, Shildt pulled King after 89 pitches, giving the ball to a bullpen that has lately been a shutdown unit. King later indicated he felt he could have provided more length, but he also has been realistic as someone who is attempting his first full season as a big-league starting pitcher. He already has thrown 66 innings, fewer than 40 shy of his career high in the majors. He has been brilliant at times and awful at others. His year to date includes a no-hit bid, seven dominant innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the most home runs allowed in the majors and the most walks issued in the National League.
He did not take comfort in learning Tuesday that Petco Park uncharacteristically has been one of the most homer-friendly stadiums in baseball this season.
“I’ve definitely added to that,” King said, wryly.
And he expressed some disagreement when presented with the contents of a recent X post by one-time Yankees teammate and former Padres outfielder Cameron Maybin. Maybin, while opining about Soto’s early success in the Bronx, wrote: “In San Diego if you struggle you know as a player … nobody’s booing you, telling you (you’re trash), you should die, etc.”
That’s the point right there. In San Diego if you struggle you know as a player… nobody’s booing you, telling you, your trash you should die etc… there’s a difference level of expectation despite attendance and I lived this, and It’s not a bias opion! When you play n nyc you…
— Cameron Maybin (@CameronMaybin) April 20, 2024
“It’s not necessarily true,” King said. “I’m getting told that I should die too when I (have poor outings with the Padres). … I think that’s just how fans are. But I also think that because there’s an expectation going into it, they have reason to then boo bad play.”
Before this year, King had pitched at Petco Park once in his career: inside the fan-less bubble of the Yankees’ 2020 American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. This past weekend, as the Padres faced a rolling Yankees team, San Diego announced a new attendance record for a three-game series. Tuesday, with a stripped-down Marlins team in town, the Padres announced their 17th sellout of the season. San Diego ranks second in the majors in average attendance, two spots ahead of the Yankees.
“I was incredibly shocked once I actually got here,” King said. “It’s an electric atmosphere here almost every single day, and I was then thinking, ‘Oh, maybe it’s just (against) L.A.’ And on a Tuesday, we’re selling out against Cincinnati.
“It’s like, you come here and you look at the team that’s assembled and the expectations that are on us. And so you have the expectations, you have the players in the locker room, and you also have fans that sell out all the time. So, it’s a very comparable atmosphere that I saw in New York.”
A current and former teammate agreed.
“I was just there for so long, so I feel like that is just instilled in me,” said Padres utilityman Tyler Wade, who played for the Yankees from 2017 to 2021. “Obviously, there’s more Yankees fans than there are any other fans in the world, so yeah, you definitely notice it, but in terms of intensity or anything else, I don’t notice the difference.”
King described what he views as a benefit of his new home. He misses the excitement of New York City, but he has embraced the comforts of living in San Diego. He does not believe it has dulled his edge at the ballpark.
“It’s a nice thing to be able to decompress from the game, coming home to what I’ll call a vacation,” King said. “Whereas in New York, just the lifestyle is so fast and everybody’s mean and angry and wanting to be somewhere quickly. And then you’re driving on the streets here and you’re walking on the streets, and yeah, it’s sunny, it’s beautiful. The beach is right there.
“You want to obviously make your adjustments here, and you never want to, like, take it home with you because now taking it home, it’s affecting your next day, and then you wake up in the morning and you’re still thinking about it.”
Tuesday night, King applauded from the dugout as he watched a teammate handle a team the Padres should handle. Matt Waldron set career highs by throwing seven scoreless innings and 47 knuckleballs, bewildering a free-swinging Marlins lineup. Since consecutive losses to the Yankees, the San Diego rotation has notched a 1.04 ERA in three games, all victories at Petco Park.
After the latest, Waldron said he too did not have a satisfying answer for drastic overall home-road splits. Still, the starting pitchers’ recent meeting had felt productive.
“It’s kind of honing in and recognizing where your weaknesses are,” Waldron said. “I think just doing that was awesome. And the environment’s great right now. I think we’re all trying to get better and develop. We all want to get better.”
(Photo: David Frerker / USA Today)
