RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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San Diego Padres pitcher Michael King throws in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
San Diego had men on the base paths all evening, riding a four-run fourth inning where they strung together six hits in a row to a 5-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night at Great American Ball Park.
Michael King extended his personal scoreless innings streak to 15 2/3 innings for San Diego (73-65), as Xander Bogaerts drove in a pair for the second consecutive game and Manny Machado had a season-high four hits. After stranding a runner on third as part of two left on base in each of the first two innings, Cincinnati (65-73) didn’t have a runner get beyond second the rest of the game as they stranded a total of nine.
“(It’s) very important to be able to turn the page, we talked about turning the page, it’s harder to turn the page if we come out on the wrong end of the scoreboard, and so when we get on the right end of the scoreboard everybody’s going to feel better about it again, we can move on from that and we can dictate what our future holds,” manager Craig Stammen said.
King was able to work around allowing a one-out double to Sal Stewart that put men on second and third in the first inning with a ground out and then fanning Tyler Stephenson. An inning later he got through a first and third situation by whiffing Edwin Arroyo and Héctor Rodriguez, and then would only face two batters with a runner on second the rest of the way.
“Michael has the ability to make really good pitches, and when they do hit them, or when he gets in those jams it’s usually self-inflicted with walks, and today he did that but he got out of those jams too. Early on it was just a couple, what I could call bleeder hits,” Stammen said.
“Michael at any point has the ability to throw you three aces and you’re walking back to the dugout, and that’s what makes him a very good pitcher.”
It made room for the offense to come to life in the fourth inning, playing pepper and finding holes against Reds starter Brady Singer.
Machado got it started with a rope to left field, then Ty France had his first of three hits on the night by pulling it through the left side. Jackson Merrill drove in the first run, bounding a ball between first and second, then Bogaerts hooked a full-count slider to the wall in left field for two more scores. Dustin Harris drove in the final run of the flurry, then Luis Campusano had the last hit of the streak.
The Padres went only two innings without getting a man on base as part of a 15-hit night — It was their most since knocking 17 on Aug. 11 in a win over Milwaukee and fifth-most in a game this campaign. Five players had multi-hit nights.
It gave King just his ninth start of where San Diego has scored five or more for him, a situation where he’s earned four of his now nine overall wins after going six innings for the night. King worked around four hits and three walks by striking out six as part of his fifth start where he didn’t allow a run.
“It was refreshing, Michael came out and threw the ball well and we gave him some run support, so it was a good game overall,” France said on the PadresTV broadcast.
Fernando Tatis Jr. helped the Padres tack on in the seventh, leading off with a double and advancing to third with two down after Machado’s lone flyout. France cashed him in, going the opposite way with an outside fastball from reliever Julian Garcia.
Then Kyle Hart came out of the pen for the Padres and promptly matched his season-high four strikeouts in his home town. The lone Red to reach against him was Elly De La Cruz on a walk, but Hart pounded the zone with 18 strikes on 29 pitches to make quick work of his two innings.
“It’s always cool, I remember pitching here and how fun that was to do in front of friends and family, and then to have an outing like he had today makes it even more special,” Stammen said.
“They’ll be out in the family room and (Hart) is going to walk out, they’re going to give him a big cheer, hugs, smiles, his mom and dad are going to be super proud of him. He did it in his home town, so great outing by him, a big outing for us to save our bullpen and get us that victory shutout.”
Wandy Peralta got the ninth, and after allowing a one-out single, was able to get Arroyo swinging and end the game with a pop out.
Randy Vásquez (10-6, 4.02 ERA) will take the hill for the second game of the series for San Diego. Cincinnati will turn to left-hander Nick Lodolo (3-3, 5.24 ERA), who has given up a combined 10 runs over his past two starts after throwing five innings of three-hit, shutout ball in his last home start on Aug. 16 against Miami. First pitch is slated for 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at Great American Ball Park
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