4-3 win kept the Padres\u2019 season alive<\/a>. \u201cA little adversity is good for the boys.\u201d<\/p>\nTry a lot of adversity.<\/p>\n
Morej\u00f3n and Miller have been two of baseball\u2019s best relievers in 2026.<\/p>\n
The script for a deep postseason run, the thinking goes, began with that one-two punch shortening games. But Tuesday\u2019s Plan B saw Game 2 starter Michael King cover the final two innings of a season-saving win in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.<\/p>\n
King threw 19 pitches in a scoreless eighth inning. He returned to the mound in the ninth for 22 more as a drama-filled night ended with Christian Yelich grounding into a double play as King grinned widely on the mound.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s night hadn\u2019t gone exactly to plan.<\/p>\n
He walked the red-hot William Contreras after striking out Jake Bauers to start the ninth. Then he walked Brice Turang to bring pitching coach Ruben Niebla to the mound as lefty Robbie Ray and right-hander Joe Musgrove warmed in a hurry.<\/p>\n
One pitch later, a slider on the outside corner led to a twin-killing; the game was over and it was on to the next elimination game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that everybody out there wants to contribute,\u201d King said of the six-out save two days after his Game 2 start. \u201cI know that I have bullets in my arm that I don\u2019t want to save.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s plan began with Nick Pivetta (4\u2153 IP, 2 ER) pitching into the fifth. Adam (\u2153 IP, H, BB) was the first out of the \u2018pen and, when his outing didn\u2019t go smoothly, Yuki Matsui (1 IP, H, BB, K) started his night by getting Turang to ground out to end the sixth with runners on second and third.<\/p>\n
Then Bradgley Rodriguez (1\u2153 IP, 3 H, 1 ER) stranded Matsui\u2019s runners on second and third to end the sixth before coughing up a run in the seventh.<\/p>\n
By that time, shortstop Xander Bogaerts had noticed King beginning to warm up in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t understand what was going on at that point because he just threw two days ago,\u201d Bogaerts said, noting King was also hitting 97 mph on the radar gun. \u201cYou know, it\u2019s unbelievable him being available for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
King inserted himself in those plans after throwing 72 pitches in Sunday\u2019s start in Milwaukee, a 4-3 loss that ended with Jackson Chourio\u2019s walk-off single off Miller.<\/p>\n
It was learned after that game that Morej\u00f3n was unavailable after he threw two innings in Saturday\u2019s loss. The \u201clittle fatigue,\u201d as it was described by Niebla late Tuesday night, complicated matters as it was learned that Miller would be going on the paternity list an hour before the game.<\/p>\n
The Padres are hopeful the down time will allow Morej\u00f3n to be available Wednesday. Their thoughts are also with Miller and his wife, too, as they become parents for the first time.<\/p>\n
In the meantime?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about it every year since I\u2019ve been here; it\u2019s cover and move,\u201d Adam said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get the job done tonight and Yuki came in, covered me. Bradgley came in and covered Yuki. Michael came in out of the bullpen \u2026 and covered us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the group we have. We can trust anybody out there in any situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometime after stretching on Tuesday afternoon, Jason Adam learned that locker mate Mason Miller was headed to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":["post-487838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}