long thoracic nerve<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe team, King said, is not calling it an official bullpen \u2014 more of a touch and feel session, but the step is clear momentum after waiting for weeks for his nerve to fire again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d King said. \u201cIt\u2019s now just a normal build-up. So I feel like I\u2019m almost in spring training all over again and just trying to get be ready as fast possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
As such, King\u2019s move to the 60-day injured list on Monday to make room for Darvish returning to the rotation was a paperwork move. More than 60 days will have passed by the time King is stretched out.<\/p>\n
The steps taken this week are part of the progression that King, the team and physical therapist Scott Hacker began to sketch out last week. He\u2019d been keeping his arm moving while waiting for the nerve \u2014 impacted by sleeping in the wrong position before a May 24 start in Atlanta \u2014 to fire again, so how fast King moves after Thursday will hinge on recovery after each step in his progression.<\/p>\n
Again, because he\u2019s not rehabbing a soft tissue injury, a return could come quick.<\/p>\n
Could.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have to try to make sure that something\u2019s healed properly,\u201d King said. \u201cEverything in there was great going into it. It\u2019s just the nerve shut off. So now that I\u2019m getting the nerve firing again, it\u2019s just that normal build-up and trying to stay safe, but try to push as much as I can, because I want to be back soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Hart conversation<\/p>\n
Plans for Kyle Hart<\/strong> to pitch in bulk relief on Sunday were finalized with a 10:30 a.m. phone call that morning to the 32-year-old left-hander.<\/p>\nThe decision did not catch him off guard.<\/p>\n
It had been floated as an option while he was progressing through his week on the road with Triple-A El Paso.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something they seemed to be plotting for a little bit,\u201d Hart said. \u201cObviously I\u2019ll do anything to get out of Albuquerque. You want me to pitch long, short. Whatever. I was just happy to come up and have an opportunity to help us win a game, win a series.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next part of the job: Take a return trip to El Paso.<\/p>\n
With Darvish coming off the 60-day injured list on Monday, Hart was a necessary cut to keep the bullpen stocked with available arms. Hart threw 43 pitches in spinning 3\u2154 innings in Sunday\u2019s win and was not going to be available for a few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cTough conversation, right? You go out and basically do your job to almost perfection and get a win, but he completely understands where we\u2019re at,\u201d Shildt said. \u201cWe had to make a move for Darvish, and we did, and have used some of our bullpen, and so we needed to keep our bullpen intact and as fresh \u2026 as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart retired all 11 batters he faced after Morgan allowed a run in the first 1\u2153 innings. That set up Jeremiah Estrada<\/strong>, Jason Adam<\/strong>, Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n<\/strong> and Robert Suarez<\/strong> to finish the game, Hart\u2019s third win in a disjointed season.<\/p>\nHart began the year on the opening day roster, won his Padres debut, was roughed up in Chicago and then won his third start.<\/p>\n
But he was bounced out of the rotation after two more poor starts, made a spot start in May (4 \u2154 IP, 5 ER) and returns to El Paso with a 5.83 ERA in 29\u2153 innings in the majors.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
RHP Ryan Bergert<\/strong> (forearm contusion) rejoined the clubhouse a day after pitching into the fifth inning in a rehab start for Triple-A El Paso. He allowed all four of his runs in the first inning and ultimately threw 44 of his 63 pitches for strikes. Bergert could be an option to return to the rotation as soon as Friday, especially if the Padres want to use a six-man rotation to give all the starters an extra day \u2014 especially Darvish \u2014 heading into the All-Star break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As he spoke Monday afternoon at Petco Park, Michael King\u2019s eyes darted to and from the throng of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-47422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114815006391121432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}