Yankees Surge With 10-Run Seventh Inning, Tie Series With Padres

NEW YORK — Michael King pitched in Yankee Stadium in different-colored pinstripes.

He performed well, except for the home run his friend hit and a few other times at bat.

A run in the top of the seventh inning gave him the lead after he exited with a tied game following six solid frames.

Later, the Padres relief pitchers accomplished something they hadn't all season.

It relinquished the advantage it received in the last few innings of the match.

It surrendered rapidly. And then even more so.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Yankees amassed 10 runs thanks to Adrián Morejión and Wandy Peralta, leading them to a comfortable 12-3 win on Tuesday.

“Just one of those days, you know,” King said of the disastrous inning by two members of what has been the major leagues’ most effective bullpen. “They’ve been the best part of us to start the year. I know I’ve got a ton of faith in both Morejón and Wandy, and I know that their next outing is going to be clean. … Just part of the game. It happens.”

Rarely like this.

The largest scoring frame against the Padres since 2011 raised the bullpen's ERA from 1.68 to 2.34, which remains the highest in Major League Baseball.

The Yankees’ barrage came after the Padres went up 3-2 in the top of the seventh on singles by Gavin Sheets and Elias Díaz and an RBI double by Fernando Tatis Jr.

The Padres' relief pitchers were given a lead in the seventh inning 13 times, and they maintained every single one of those leads. This statistic encompassed five instances where the lead was just one run.

This one, though, evaporated in seven pitches and was a distant memory not too many pitches after that.

Morejón surrendered a double to Jasson Dominguez with his initial throw, followed by a single from Anthony Volpe four pitches afterward. Then, a single by Austin Wells right afterwards evened the score.

When Oswaldo Cabrera clumsily tapped a bunt towards Manny Machado at third base, Morejón received some good fortune. However, his next three pitches went awry as they all sailed outside the strike zone against pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt. Ultimately, the Padres opted for a strategic move by intentionally walking Goldschmidt, advancing him to first base.

Peralta, who had the fifth-highest groundball rate of qualifying relievers at 71.4%, came into the game with the bases loaded. If he could induce a double-play grounder, he would have ended the inning without giving up any runs, keeping the game tied.

He instead walked Trent Grisham on four pitches, yielded an 0-2 double to Ben Rice that brought in two more runs and, after an intentional walk to Aaron Judge, allowed an 0-1 single to Cody Bellinger that made it 7-3. Volpe’s second sinlge of the inning, a hard single off Machado’s glove, drove in the sixth run of the inning and preceded a grand slam by Wells.

This concluded a six-game winning run by the Padres and also cost King an opportunity to secure victory against his old squad.

King, acquired by the Padres in December 2023 when they traded Juan Soto to New York, played in 115 games for the Yankees, with 60 of these taking place at Yankee Stadium. Although he made seven starts during this time, most appearances came with stringent pitch limits imposed.

The Padres obtained the right-handed pitcher to include him in their starting rotation, and he concluded his first complete season as a starter with the fourth lowest ERA in the National League at 2.95.

On Tuesday morning, he held the fourth lowest ERA (2.09) in the National League for the current season. Even though he felt his mechanics were off and mentioned "I didn’t have anything," King ended the evening with an improved ERA of 2.22, which ranked him fifth among pitchers in the NL.

With a 2-0 advantage at the top of the fourth inning—thanks to singles from Machado and Jackson Merrill, a walk drawn by Sheets, a bases-loaded balk, and Jason Heyward’s sacrifice fly—King surrendered two runs in the bottom half of the fourth.

The initial batter started off strong with only one out as Judge launched a fly ball towards the famously compact right-field wall. The ball soared over Tatis’ reach as he jumped for it. Data from StatCast indicates that this hit would have cleared the fence in merely two stadiums across the league. At 341 feet, it ranked as the sixth shortest home run among the 327 that Judge has hit throughout his career.

I delivered a average-average fastball to the top batter in Major League Baseball," King stated. "I'm not anticipating getting that pitch back.

What truly impacted King was what occurred following the home run.

He walked Bellinger with four pitches, and Dominguez responded by driving a single into the right-center field gap. Tatis managed to field the ball and threw it towards third base, attempting prematurely to tag out Bellinger. However, his throw arrived too late and veered off course, bouncing away from Machado and rolling out of bounds. This allowed Bellinger to score easily. Since the second out was recorded via a fly ball which could not prevent Bellinger from scoring, this run counted as earned.

It was enjoyable," King stated about pitching at Yankee Stadium. "I thought I might end up walking towards the opposite dugout, but I managed not to do so. Therefore, that counts as a victory.

King and Yankees starting pitcher Clarke Schmidt managed to pitch six innings each without altering the scoreboard.

That would definitely shift, even though Padres manager Mike Shildt stated just as definitively that it wouldn’t make any difference for him.

The relief pitchers have been exceptional," Shildt stated. "They've been remarkable. Morejon has stood out. Wandy has also been phenomenal. ... On the flip side, they're putting up a good fight as well. In one of those games, during one of those innings, I would be more than willing to send them both back onto the field tomorrow.

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