SAN FRANCISCO — Michael King put in a strong seven. The offense did too.
This was going to be one of the rare games that Adrian Morejón and/or Mason Miller were going to get to rest.
Nope. That is not how it goes for the Padres this season.
It’s fine. Just ask them.
“Just answer the bell when it’s our turn,” Miller said after his 36th save, tied for most in the National League.
“No problem,” Morejón said after his 70th appearance, another dominant eighth inning.
The Padres conjured up a little bit of everything in putting together their sixth consecutive victory, a mostly commanding but then suddenly stressful 7-6 triumph over the Giants on Saturday afternoon.
In the beginning, King picked himself up. In the middle, the Padres offense backed him up. At the end, Morejón and Miller locked it down.
After Bradgley Rodriguez replaced King at the start of the eighth inning and allowed three runs on two homers without recording an out, Morejón retired the next three batters and Miller worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
That concluded the Padres’ 43rd one-run game, third most in the major leagues. It was the eighth time in 13 games that has been the final margin, and it was their fifth consecutive victory in a game decided by one run. Morejón has worked all five of those, Miller four.
When the Padres were gifted a run in the top of the seventh inning and King survived the bottom of the seventh, manager Craig Stammen and pitching coach Ruben Niebla entertained thoughts of being able to get through the final three innings without one or both of the two back-end stalwarts.
Morejón had already worked five of the previous eight games over eight days, including in Friday’s 7-5 victory. Miller had thrown 27 pitches Friday and worked four of the previous eight days.
“It’s crazy the amount of talent that we have down there,” King said of the bullpen. “All the trust that we have in them. We’ve definitely asked them to do a ton, come into so many different situations, and we always feel confident having them get out of it. So I definitely try every time I’m out there to give a little breather to them. But I know they get abused, and they’ve been really good throughout it.”
That wasn’t the only way Saturday’s victory was built in a familiar manner.
It was the Padres’ 24th victory in a game in which they trailed by two or more runs, tying the franchise record they set last season. It was the 41st time they came back to win a game this season, tied for fourth most in the major leagues.
But this one, which assured the Padres would at least maintain their half-game lead over the Diamondbacks in the race for the NL’s final playoff spot, was also somewhat unique in its composition.
The Padres scored a lot for King, who entered the game getting fewer runs of support while he was in his starts than any qualifying NL starter.
They did it in some different ways too.
Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit home runs, but the Padres also bunted and ran their way to runs during a scoring streak that lasted from the second through the seventh innings.
In that stretch, their first time scoring in six consecutive innings this season, they went from down 2-0 at the end of the first inning to tied 2-2 in the middle of the second to down 3-2 at the end of the second to tied 3-3 in the middle of the third and then pulled away with one run in each of the next four innings.
King recovered from surrendering Rafael Devers’ two-run homer before recording an out and Shay Whitcomb’s homer in the second inning to finish off his seventh consecutive quality start.
Devers’ second home run of the series ended King’s scoreless streak at 21⅔ innings, the 13th-longest ever by a Padres starting pitcher.
He followed Whitcomb’s homer by retiring 14 consecutive batters to get through the sixth inning.
“Offense picked me up and allowed me to settle in,” King said. “And then, I felt like it was pretty good execution after that second home run.”
A leadoff single by Jonah Cox ended the outs streak, and King allowed a two-out single to Jung Hoo Lee before finishing his fourth seven-inning outing of the season.
Padres hitters went to work almost immediately on Giants left-hander Cesar Perdomo, a 24-year-old September callup who worked six scoreless innings against the Mets in his first major league start six days earlier.
Austin Hays and Xander Bogaerts began the second inning with singles before two outs were made and Tatis walked to load the bases. Dustin Harris, batting second for the first time, tied the game with a single through the left side.
After Whitcomb put the Giants up with a homer to the Giants’ bullpen just to the left of the batter’s eye in the bottom of the second, Merrill homered to the Padres’ bullpen just to the right of the batter’s eye to tie the game in the third.
The Padres began mixing it up in the fourth inning, as Samad Taylor reached on a bunt single and took off for second on a pitch that Tatis grounded weakly to the left side. When Perdomo fielded the ball and threw to first, Taylor kept running to third. Tatis beat out the throw, giving the Padres runners at the corners with one out. Harris followed with a line drive to right field for a sacrifice fly and his fifth RBI in two games.
They got downright squirrely for their run in the fifth inning, as Jake Cronenworth followed a one-out double by Hays and Bogaerts’ groundout that moved Hays to third with a bunt single that brought Hays home.
Tatis’ home run leading off the fifth made it 6-3. And the Padres’ final run was unearned, scored by Bogaerts after the third of his season-high four hits, his career-high 21st stolen base and an error by Whitcomb at third base.
“Most of the game, complete game from us,” Stammen said. “Michael gave up a couple home runs early, but we bounced back, we fought back, scored runs to match them and we really tacked on runs almost every single inning. We handled their pitching really well today. Ran the bases well, played good defense. Just that eighth inning, Bradgley just didn’t have it today. But then that’s the niceness of having Adrian Morejón and Mason Miller right behind him.”