The Padres expect their trade deadline acquisitions to eventually stabilize the rotation.
The pitching staff looks even better when this version of Michael King shows up.
King threw six strong innings, Jackson Merrill homered for the seventh time since the All-Star break and the Padres beat the Houston Astros 3-2 in front of a sellout crowd of 41,937 on Saturday at Petco Park.
“You’re looking for games like that where he’s kind of in control the whole game,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “He’s got his good fastball command. He’s got all of his pitches working, and he’s able to go deep in the game. Six innings — he probably could have went another inning. We decided to go to our pen, because we had them ready to go, but yeah, if we get that from Michael King, we’ll be in good shape here the rest of the way.”
Still, they’ll need help to get to where they want and they got some on Saturday. They are a game behind the Phillies in the race for the NL’s third wild-card spot, while the Diamondbacks tied their game with the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth inning to potentially go to sleep on Saturday as the No. 2 wild-card team. The Marlins, meantime, are two games behind the Padres with 44 games left to the season.
“It’s hard not to, honestly,” Stammen said of watching scores around the league. “But the one thing that we cannot do is determine the outcome of another game. The only outcome that we can determine is our own game, and we’ve got to stay focused on that.”
They did that Saturday throughout a nip-and-tuck game with the AL West leaders.
Merrill’s home run answered the one run that King allowed. The Padres tacked on another on an error in the fourth inning and the Padres’ bullpen tallied the final nine outs, although not without some drama.
Adrián Morejón walked a batter to load the bases in the seventh inning before striking out pinch-hitter Jake Meyers with the bases loaded to clean up Jeremiah Estrada’s mess. The 27-year-old left-hander then turned in a scoreless eighth and Mason Miller converted his career-high 29th save despite hitting a batter and giving up a run-scoring single.
The damage might have been worse had Ty France not made a diving play to his right and had Miller not gone to his knees to reel in a low throw to first base for an adventurous first out in a hairy inning that began with the Padres’ closer drilling Christian Walker with a 102 mph four-seamer.
The win improved the Padres to 41-4 when leading after six innings, 46-1 when leading after seven and 49-0 when leading after eight.
“We get it to the bullpen in the seventh inning and we’re up, it just feels like we got it,” Merrill said. “I trust our guys back there, but I trust our starters too. You know, everybody heats up. Everybody goes through slumps, so I’m confident in those guys too.”
As far as the rotation goes, King is at the top of the confidence meter, even if the team is somehow 10-14 in his starts this year. He leads the team in innings (136⅓) and the starters in ERA (3.37), but he’s talked often and at length about grinding to regain the feel he had before losing much of the 2025 season to injury.
Saturday’s effort was another step in the right direction, even if just a step in King’s view. He struck out six, walked one and allowed three hits while throwing 64 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
He only paid for one hit: a solo homer from former Padres prospect Taylor Trammell to right-center off a four-seamer just above the zone.
The blast tied the game at 1-1 in the second inning. The Padres retook the lead in the third inning on Merrill’s home run and a double-play ball helped King out of the top of the fourth inning, the start of seven straight outs to end his outing.
“Still not there,” King said. “Today was a better one. Sinker command was a lot better, and when I have my sinker on, it makes everything else play up. But sweeper was really bad. Changeup was pretty good. So I’ve got to, especially to roll through a ton of righties, I’ve got to have that sweeper. And yeah, we’re still making adjustments.”
Jackson Merrill #3 of the San Diego Padres rounds the bases after a home run against the Houston Astros during the third inning at Petco Park on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Merrill’s third-inning homer off right-hander Peter Lambert (5 IP, 3 R, 2 ER) traveled 421 feet on a 107 mph line to center to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
It was Merrill’s seventh homer in 22 games since the All-Star break (.333/.352/.632) after hitting .219/.278/.350 over his first 93 games.
“Just being on time, being aggressive,” Merrill said. “Trying to win an at-bat each time I go up there, not think about anything but getting a good pitch to hit.”
Merrill’s first RBI of the afternoon counted as a fielder’s choice as all three runners on base had to hold up to make sure right fielder Cam Smith wouldn’t come up with the catch on the shallow fly ball.
Fernando Tatis Jr. easily scored from third when the ball fell in, but Ty France was thrown out before he could reach second base, taking a hit away from Merrill.
The Padres’ third run crossed the plate when Gavin Sheets reached on a swinging bunt in the fourth inning, moved to third on a pair of groundouts and scored when shortstop Jeremy Peña booted a routine grounder from Tatis.
On Friday, three runs were not enough.
On Saturday, with King and the bullpen clicking, they were just enough to even the series against the Astros.
“I was actually talking about that this morning with somebody,” Merrill said. “It’s like we never hit when Mike pitches, but pitched his (butt) off today, and we got enough to do the job.”