Former Yankee pitcher Michael King had made just one postseason appearance in his six-year major league career until Tuesday.
And he delivered in a big way.
King threw seven innings of scoreless ball while striking out 12 batters, allowing five hits with no walks in his first-ever playoff start in a 4-0 Game 1 win for the Padres over the Braves in their National League Wild Card Series.
“I think I dreamed of a perfect game instead of a few hits that I gave up,” said King, who came over in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees in December. “But I mean, to get up 1-0 in a three-game series is huge. That was the goal and we accomplished that. We’ve got our horse Joe (Musgrove) tomorrow and I’ve got a lot of confidence in us.”
On his final strikeouts of the night, King was able to get outfielder Ramón Laureano to go down looking and before getting Travis d’Arnaud to chase a pitch way outside the strike zone.
King’s first postseason start began with the right-hander retiring the side in order by striking out Ozzie Albies, Marcell Ozuna and Jorge Soler.
King, with his stellar outing, became the first pitcher to record 12 strikeouts while not allowing a run or walk in a first career postseason start.
His 12 strikeouts are also the fourth most in a first postseason start behind only Jacob deGrom (13 in 2015), Tim Lincecum (14 in 2010) and Liván Hernández (15 in 1997), according to stat guru Sarah Langs.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, King is the fifth pitcher in MLB history to have at least 10 strikeouts, no walks and no runs in a postseason game, joining the likes of Cliff Lee (2009), Jake Arrieta (2015), Trevor Bauer (2020) and Logan Webb (2021).
The Padres acquired King during the offseason as part of the blockbuster deal that brought Juan Soto to The Bronx.
Also part of that deal was catcher Kyle Higashioka, who was behind the plate for Game 1 and caught in King’s only other playoff appearance back on Oct 7, 2020, against the Rays — which happened to take place in San Diego.
Higashioka helped drive in a run in the second inning to extend the Padres lead to three before putting the game out of reach with a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
— with AP
