Michael King dismantles the Guardians in his most dominant night as a Padre

Michael King absolutely dealt on Tuesday night. What much more can you say? He simply dismantled the Guardians.

King is just coming off what is arguably, his best regular season start as a Padre. He handled Cleveland through five innings and he didn’t allow a single run as he struck out 11, which tied a regular season high in a Padres uniform – all while only giving up one walk and two hits, which were both singles. After coming off a pedestrian outing in his last start on Opening Day against the Braves, in which he tallied 2 2/3 innings, surrendering three runs on four hits and four walks, the second time around was a much stronger performance for Michael King.

He was excellent, as he stunted the Guardians all night. He induced plenty of weak contact, averaging 76.8 MPH of exit velocity. This led to all of his 15 outs coming via the strikeout or a softly batted ball, none of which were hit harder than 78.1 MPH. The Guardians simply did not have an answer for his stuff, as King posted a 46.2 whiff percentage. He generated 18 whiffs (swings-and-misses) altogether, with half of them coming from his four-seam. 

His four-seam was electric. Not once during his time as a Padre, did he put up a whiff rate north of 60 percent on his four-seam. Last night alone he posted a 64.3 percent swing-and-miss rate. There was unbelievable carry on his four-seam, as he averaged 18.7 inches of induced vertical break, leading to three of his 11 strikeouts.

Baseball Savant’s “run-value” has King’s sinker listed as his most effective pitch, so far this year. Simply by watching him throw it, you can see how nasty the pitch is. Last night, he averaged 20.2 inches of arm-side break, ringing up four of Cleveland’s hitters with it. The sinker was devastating. Though he garnered only two whiffs, he generated nine “called-strikes plus whiffs” – meaning when he threw a sinker, 69.2 percent of them either went for a called strike or a swing and miss. 

Michael King was dialed in last night against a very good Cleveland lineup. If the Padres are looking to make a deep run in the postseason, their rotation will have to perform with the best of them. The Dodgers, Phillies, and Diamondbacks are all teams with a deep pitching staff that are looking to make it back to the Fall Classic. San Diego can compete as they have three arms who could legitimately contend for the NL Cy Young – with Cease and Pivetta, led by King at the helm.