Good morning,

Michael King’s return to the mound ended well for the Padres.

And he did his part.

King didn’t last very long in his debut. A 34-pitch second inning was his undoing. But it also helped the Padres beat the Red Sox 5-4 in 10 innings last night.

King escaped the second without allowing a run after loading the bases with one out.

The Padres’ mega bullpen took over from there.

“That’s the best bullpen in the big leagues,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the Padres’ relievers. “Amazing. They did a good job adding people, and they’ve been really good throughout. But we had a chance early on to put them away. We had a chance against King, and we didn’t cash in. And then you’re gonna go one on one with them, but our guys did an amazing job, too. The bullpen did a great job for us.”

Indeed.

The Padres just ended up having one more arm than the fine Red Sox bullpen.

That arm, in this instance, belonged to Jason Adam.

He pitched a scoreless 10th inning to enable Ramón Laureano’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th.

The victory over the Red Sox, who had won eight of their past nine games and hold the top wild-card spot in the American League, gave the Padres a chance to win their fourth straight series today.

It also moved them two games up on the Mets and kept them 2½ games behind the Cubs in the National League wild-card race, and it kept them three games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

“This is a big game,” Adam said. “This is a quality team we could end up seeing at the end of the road. It’s a high-stakes game. They’re trying to win their division. We’re trying to win ours. Very intense.”

The key link in last night’s kinetic relief chain was Jeremiah Estrada, who worked a 12-pitch fifth inning and was, thus, able to take down the sixth as well.

In the words of bench coach Brian Esposito, Estrada “put the domino back into place.”

That referred to the extra inning from Estrada enabling the Padres to forego using Adam to work the sixth and being able to go to Adrian Morejón to start the seventh.

You can read in my game story (here) about how the Padres took the lead between Estrada’s two innings and how Morejón and Mason Miller got the lead to the ninth before Robert Suarez allowed the tying run.

And, sure, the Padres are going to need some starting pitchers besides Nick Pivetta to go more than five innings at some point. (He is the only one to do so in the past seven games, and he has done it twice in that span.)

“We really do need to get innings out of starters to be able to use our bullpen appropriately,” manager Mike Shildt said.

And, yes, having to use all five of their highest-leverage relievers last night could come back to bite the Padres, who have four more games before their next day off.

But consider this:

Suarez (24 pitches) and Estrada (27) probably will be last resorts today, if they are available at all. But that leaves Morejón (14 pitches), Miller (14) and Adam (14) available. And even if all three pitch today, then Suarez and Estrada would be available tomorrow.

It might not work out like that. But that it could work out like that illustrates the advantage the Padres have over almost every other team.

“It’s such a deep pen,” Adam said. “So special. It’s going to pay dividends now, for the rest of the regular season. I think it’s going to pay dividends in the postseason.”

A good sign?

Laureano’s decisive hit was so perfectly placed it seemed to be on purpose.

But sometimes, the best outcomes are the ones that were not called for. And in the case of Laureano, what he did was literally not what was called for.

He came to the plate with runners on first and second and no outs in the 10th and was supposed to bunt. But Laureano, who joined the team on Aug. 1 after being acquired in a trade, acknowledged afterward he doesn’t “really know the signs really well.”

So he then pulled a veteran move that was clutch in its own way. Not knowing what he was supposed to do, he made a decision and was not hesitant.

“I was in-between,” he said. “You can’t be in-between in this game. So I (was) just like, ‘Let’s shut this down and move it like that.”

Laureano’s chopped single over third baseman Alex Bregman’s head landed just about exactly where Bregman would have been had he not been playing in to guard against the bunt.

“I don’t really know what I was thinking,” Laureano said. “But it is what it is, and we won the game.”

Of course the Padres had a bunt on. They bunt more than any team in the major leagues. And you can argue the strategy, but they have won games with the bunt, and Laureano had grounded out at 106.5 mph and lined out at 107.7 mph already last night.

Laureano spoke to the media after Shildt had declined to confirm Laureano had missed the call.

“We won the game,” he said. “We had the walk off hit, so let’s leave it at that.”

Be assured, however, Shildt later took time to talk to Laureano, who will know the signs going forward.

Details matter

If you don’t think it set off alarms for Shildt that Laureano missed the bunt sign, then you haven’t been paying attention.

This is a manager and a coaching staff and a team that take pride in winning on the margins.

That was displayed further last night when Shildt addressed a question about a balk by Wandy Peralta in the third inning.

After Boston’s Jarren Duran advanced to third base on a grounder, Manny Machado kept the ball to attempt the hidden ball trick. When Duran stepped off the base, Machado tagged him.

But rather than an out being called, Duran was awarded home, as a balk was called because Peralta was standing on the rubber. A pitcher cannot be on the rubber or straddling the runner without the ball when a base is occupied.

“I thought it was a great baseball play,” Shildt said. “I’ll take some responsibility, because we want to work on everything that can possibly happen in spring training, and it’s my miss that we didn’t. … Manny’s IQ shows up again. It was something we didn’t work on. … It’s something that, again, I’ll take responsibility for that. We should work on (the situation) in spring training. One of the few things that rarely catches us with our team.”

King on the hill

King’s return has long been seen as a necessary piece of the puzzle for the Padres in their quest to go deep in the postseason.

It could even be considered the final piece, coming as it does after Yu Darvish came back from his elbow injury last month and the Padres made significant additions at last week’s trade deadline.

How he performs over his starts down the stretch and in the postseason is what matters.

The result from King last night was not all that important.

“It was good to have Michael back,” Shildt said. “He would have, I’m sure, preferred to go longer. But what a good sight to see Mchael King back on the mound.”

Shildt was, of course, correct regarding how King felt about his outing.

“Obviously, not as crisp as I’d like to be,” he said. “… I crossfired a few times, trying to go in, missed away or trying to go away, missed in. Changeup wasn’t as good as I’d like it to be. I felt like I found it a little bit in the second inning, but still not great. Slider was nowhere.

“I think (the) release point was off a little bit on some pitches. But had to make those adjustments. And think when I’m really rolling, I can make those one-pitch adjustments. It took me a couple pitches to make those adjustments, and I will definitely be faster with those in my next outing.”

And that’s the point. His next outing will not be his first.

After being sidelined 2½ months waiting out a nerve impingement near his right shoulder and then building up his arm strength, he got the massive adrenaline rush of being back on the mound in a big-league game out of the way last night. He got a base-loaded jam out of the way. He got struggling out of the way. He worked his first game with catcher Freddy Fermin.

“I think the difference between Round Rock and Petco Park is pretty, pretty drastic,” he said in reference to where he made his minor-league rehab start. “It’s really fun to be in those atmospheres, pitching in big situations. … Bases loaded, I haven’t done that in however long, so it’s just fun to kind of put yourself back in those situations and try to put up as many zeroes as you can.”

Waiting on it

Xander Bogaerts reached down and out for a changeup at the knees and launched a fly ball high in the air down the left field line in the second inning. He headed out of the batter’s box, grabbed the top of his helmet, put his head down and figured his jog would end shortly after he rounded first base.

The ball had gone 85 feet in the air at 92.3 mph off the bat. It had virtually no chance to be anything but an out or a homer.

“I hit it good,” Bogaerts said after the game. “But, I mean, you know Petco. Plays a little big sometimes. So I doubted that one on the swing off the bat.”

The ball landed 358 feet from the plate and about four rows beyond the wall, tying the game 1-1.

It was Boagerts’ third home run in four games. All three  have come on pitches that were not fastballs.

Bogaerts is batting .340 (55-for-162) and slugging .543 in 43 games since June 19. His .943 OPS in that stretch is fourth highest in the NL.

In that span, he is batting .414 (24-for-58) and slugging .759 on breaking and offspeed pitches.

In his first 72 games, he hit .227 with a .311 slugging percentage overall and .234 with a .374  slugging percentage on breaking and offspeed pitches.

And that might be the biggest indicator of what has turned Bogaerts’ season around.

“Being able to wait,” he said. That’s the hardest part. Having that ability to wait is something that is a difference maker.”

The notorious tinkerer stopped tinkering once he found a swing that felt good. He is now aggressive but not jumpy.

He couldn’t stay back on pitches when he was struggling.

“No, no, no, no,” he said. “You want to. But when you have some stuff out of whack, you’re not able to. Even though you want to, but you don’t.”

Bogaerts also drove in the Padres’ second run with a single off a fastball.

Stay with it

Bogaerts’ other big contribution last was keeping a tag on David Hamilton after Hamilton slid in safely on a stolen base with one out in the eighth inning.

The Padres challenged the call, which was overturned after replay showed Hamilton’s hand came off the bag for a split second.

You can see in this video how Bogaerts not only kept the tag on but also kept his knee from knocking Hamilton’s hand off the bag:

“Right as I’m going to tag, he got his hand in,” Bogaerts said. “But, I mean, that’s what they teach you, keep your tag on and also keep your hand on. So, I mean, hey, him having the mitt is a little tough. I mean, it kind of slides on the base and stuff. But it was a big out.”

Miller completed a strikeout of Abraham on the next pitch and then ended the inning with a three-pitch strikeout of Wilyer Abreu.

K race

Estrada got a pop fly for his first out last night and then struck out the final five batters he faced. Of the 15 outs he has made over his past four appearances, 12 have come by strikeout.

He ranks fifth among qualifying MLB relievers with 13.08 strikeouts per nine innings.

Miller, whose 14.34 strikeouts per nine are second among qualifying relievers, struck out three of the four batters he faced last night.

“I’m going to be chasing him in strikeouts for a while,” Miller said. “It seems like he strikes out the world.”

Tidbits

  • If you enjoyed how Laureano and Miller helped the Padres win last night, you might enjoy a story I wrote yesterday (here) examining how it was the Padres were able to get them and four other big leaguers at the trade deadline.
  • Jeff Sanders provided (here) the latest health update on Ethan Salas, the Padres’ new top prospect.
  • The Padres have won 25 one-run games, tied with the Mariners for most in the major leagues.
  • Fernando Tatis Jr. was 2-for-5 and stole third base both times he got on. He is the only player in the major leagues to have stolen third twice in two games this season, and he leads the major leagues with 10 steals of third this season.
  • Tatis’ next steal will be his 25th, which will match his career high set in 2021.
  • Bogaerts stole his 18th base of the season, which is one off his career high set in 2023.
  • Ryan O’Hearn was walked a career-high four times last night, including intentionally in the 10th inning. He has walked in six of his past nine plate appearances.
  • Peralta’s streak of 16 inherited runners stranded ended last night. And, yes, the actual runner he inherited was eliminated on the basepaths. But it was on a fielder’s choice, and that runner scored.
  • Jake Cronenworth was hit by his team-leading 10th pitch of the season. He has been hit 59 times in his career, 21 more than any player wearing a Padres uniform ever has.
  • Machado was 0-for-4 last night and is 1-for-11 over the past three games. This mini-skid follows a 13-game stretch in which he hit .444 (24-for-54).
  • With fastballs of 103 and 102.9 mph last night, Miller has now thrown the seven fastest pitches by a Padres pitcher since at least 2008 (when pitches began being tracked and logged). Miller, who has topped out at 104.1 mph for the Padres, is also tied for eighth with Andres Muñoz at 102.8 mph.

All right, that’s it for me. Early game today (1:10 p.m. PT) and then a flight to San Francisco.

Talk to you tomorrow.