NEW YORK — Michael King defied what was normal for a pitcher returning from a long layoff when he threw strikes effectively for five innings in his return from the injured list last week.
The rust was waiting for him Tuesday at Citi Field.
King getting hit hard and often on Tuesday was least as troubling as anything about an 8-3 loss to the Mets.
It was arguably the greatest concern to come out of the night.
That is because the Padres are virtually certain to make the playoffs. But what they do when they get there could be largely up to King.
The 29-year-old right-hander would be the presumptive starter in the second game of the team’s first postseason series. But that would also presumably be on the condition he is able to right himself and show he is a semblance of the pitcher who has been their best starter over the past two seasons when he is healthy.
King threw an abundance of pitches up and over the middle of the plate while lasting one batter into the fourth inning on Tuesday, and that batter hit the Mets’ fourth home run of the night.
He allowed eight runs on 10 hits, both more than he had ever surrendered in a game.
The Mets were up 5-0 after the first inning and 7-1 after the second.
Jackson Merrill homered in the first inning, and Jake Cronenworth did so in the second to get the Padres to 7-2.
Cedric Mullins led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run, which was the Mets’ shortest (388 feet) and softest (102.1 mph) of the night.
Eight of the 17 balls the Mets put in play against King had an exit velocity of at least 99 mph, and six were off the bat at 104 mph or harder.
King’s start a week earlier against the Reds, his first in a month and second in nearly four months, was not without an occasional lapse in command. He allowed a pair of home runs and had another brought back by a spectacular Fernando Tatis Jr. catch above the wall. But he allowed just one other hit and walked one batter while throwing strikes at a 67% rate.
Tuesday’s start and the two others he has time to make before October were considered part of a ramping-up process after being sidelined for most of the summer.
King had a 2.59 ERA, sixth best in the NL, when he was sidelined after 10 starts with a nerve impingement near his right shoulder in mid-May. He came back to start Aug. 9 against the Red Sox but was bothered by knee pain, departed after allowing two runs in two innings and was placed on the injured list before his next scheduled start.
After throwing 63 pitches against the Reds, the hope was he would take that up another dozen or so Tuesday.
He ended up throwing 57 pitches before Kyle Hart took over.
Hart retired the next six batters. Yuki Matsui toook over to start the sixth and worked 1⅔ scoreless innings before Bradgley Rodriguez got through the eighth without allowing a run.
The Padres did not do much offensively after the early homers. Ramón Laureano’s two-out double in the fourth inning was their only other hit against Mets starter Clay Holmes. Sean Manaea relieved Holmes to start the fifth inning and allowed a single to Manny Machado in the sixth and a homer by Freddy Fermin in the eighth before finishing off the game.
The loss knocked one game off the Padres’ lead over the Mets, who sit in the sixth and final NL playoff spot, four games behind the Padres.
Three teams are within two games of the Mets — the Diamondbacks at 1½ back, the Giants and Reds at two. All three were still playing when the Padres and Mets finished Tuesday.
A cushion of at least 5½ games with 11 to play makes the Padres a virtual lock for the postseason. FanGraphs.com had their chances at 99.7% at the start of Tuesday night.
Originally Published: September 16, 2025 at 6:51 PM PDT