The Clubhouse DJ: Michael King Flirted With a No-No to Put the Padres Up 1-0 Over the Cubs
By Nate Mercer ·
Michael King faced 23 Chicago Cubs before anyone collected a hit on Tuesday night at Petco Park. The 24th was Nico Hoerner, who pushed a soft grounder down the third-base line with one out in the seventh and beat it for an infield single. The Cubs had their first hit of Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series. The Padres already led 7-0. They finished it 8-0.
King had set the order of the night before San Diego even batted. He struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong on three pitches to open the game, then got Alex Bregman swinging and Michael Busch on a grounder to first, with King covering. Eleven pitches, three outs, no traffic. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the first by hitting Matthew Boyd's first pitch, an 83.4-mph changeup, 405 feet to center for a home run. Two batters later, Machado hit an 81.5-mph changeup 391 feet to left-center. It was 2-0 before Boyd recorded a second out.
Boyd's changeup kept finding the zone, and San Diego kept sending it out. Xander Bogaerts hit a 79.9-mph changeup 399 feet to left in the fourth, a solo shot that made it 4-0. All three of Boyd's home runs came on that pitch. Between the Machado and Bogaerts homers, Machado had already added an RBI double in the third, a 108-mph line drive to center that scored Tatis from first after a walk. Boyd lasted four innings: five hits, four earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts, three homers, 58 pitches.
Javier Assad inherited the mess in the fifth, and Campusano greeted him with a leadoff single. After Tatis struck out and pinch-hitter Dustin Harris popped out, Assad walked Machado and let Ty France single to load the bases. Ryan Rolison came on, and Jackson Merrill ripped a 107.1-mph grounder through the right side off him, scoring Campusano and Machado and sending France to third. With Austin Hays batting, a passed ball by Carson Kelly let France score, a run charged to Assad. That made it 7-0. Merrill finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.
King kept dealing while the lead grew. Through six innings the Cubs had no hits, three walks, and a second-inning throwing error by Bogaerts that put Seiya Suzuki on second with nobody out. King stranded him. Crow-Armstrong stole second after his third-inning walk and never scored. Bregman struck out in all three of his trips against King. Crow-Armstrong went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and a walk. King finished seven innings on 97 pitches (62 strikes): one hit, three walks, eight strikeouts, zero runs. Yuki Matsui threw a clean eighth. Joe Musgrove worked the ninth, allowed singles to Suzuki and Hoerner around a walk to Ian Happ, got Pedro Ramírez on an infield fly with the bases loaded, then struck out pinch-hitter Michael Conforto to end it. Chicago's three hits were all singles. Two of them belonged to Hoerner.
San Diego's eighth run was pure chaos. Tatis singled to lead off the seventh against Aaron Civale, stole second, and scored when Kelly's throw skipped away for an error. Harris followed with an infield single. Civale later picked Harris off first after a successful Cubs challenge overturned the original call. Jacob Webb got the last out of the seventh and pitched the eighth.
The Padres scored eight runs on 13 hits. Six of the runs were driven in; the other two came on the passed ball and the steal-plus-error. Machado went 2-for-3 with a homer, a double, a walk, two runs, and two RBI. Tatis went 2-for-3 with a homer, a walk, and three runs scored. Bogaerts added the third solo shot. Chicago left eight on base and struck out 11 times.
San Diego leads the best-of-three series 1-0. Game 2 is Wednesday night at Petco Park, scheduled for 9 p.m. Central, with Kevin Gausman (9-12, 4.51 ERA) listed for the Cubs and Nick Pivetta (3-2, 2.86 ERA in eight starts) for the Padres. A Game 3, if needed, would be Thursday night in San Diego.
King's regular season ended at 12-10 with a 3.21 ERA over 185 innings. On Tuesday he needed one soft grounder to third to spoil a no-hitter, and he still left with a shutout win behind him. How deep Gausman can carry the Cubs on Wednesday is the first thing I'll be watching.