The Padres came home suddenly hot.
They stayed hot enough Monday to win the opener of a three-game series against the Dodgers at Petco Park.
Michael King worked seven scoreless innings, Miguel Andujar’s first-inning home run off Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the only run scored, and Mason Miller survived a wild ninth in the Padres’ 1-0 victory that flip-flopped the top spots in the National League West.
“The standings are the standings,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said Monday afternoon. “They don’t really matter in May.”
But winning the first meeting of the season against the Dodgers is not nothing.
“It’s a great test for us,” outfielder Nick Castellanos said before the game. “We’ve been finding ways to win, and obviously they’ve been in charge of this division for, I don’t know how many years or whatever, but for a little bit. So, you know, we get to see where we are. We get to get a feel for it.”
The only thing to definitively take away from the Padres’ fourth consecutive victory is that they want King on the mound when they face the Dodgers.
“One of the best games he’s pitched as a Padre,” Stammen said. “I think he was in control from the very beginning.”
Before Jason Adam left two runners on in a scoreless eighth and Miller locked in to lock down his 15th save following two walks at the start of the ninth inning, King (4-2, 2.31 ERA) allowed four hits and struck out nine while running his streak of scoreless innings in the regular season against the Dodgers to 21.
“It’s always a fun battle against them,” King said. “They have a really well-balanced lineup, one that you can’t just throw the same sequences to all their guys. They mix it up right, left, right, left. A lot of guys that don’t chase, so you got to stay in zone, make sure that you’re just getting to the execution spots. … I want to go as deep as I can every game. I know we got that electric bullpen down there, but I try to convince Stammen to let me go as many as possible. So yeah, I’m happy I was able to get through seven.”
With help from catcher Rodolfo Durán throwing out two runners trying to steal second base, King faced the minimum number of batters through 5⅔ innings. He got a double-play grounder and survived a pair of soft singles and a hard single to leave a runner at third base in the sixth. He got past a leadoff walk with help from a diving stop by first baseman Gavin Sheets and completed the seventh when center fielder Jackson Merrill made a running grab in front of the wall.
Thanks to Durán nabbing Mookie Betts trying to steal as part of a strikeout double play to end the first inning and Shohei Ohtani trying to steal second after a leadoff walk in the fourth, King had thrown just 73 pitches heading into the sixth inning.
“It’s an absolute weapon back there,” King said of Durán.
After Andy Pages flared a single into shallow center field to start that inning, Teoscar Hernandez grounded into a double play.
Hyeseong Kim, the Dodgers’ No. 9 hitter, followed with a line drive into right field, and Ohtani then dribbled a 40 mph grounder to the left side that Durán fielded and threw wide of first base, allowing Kim to get to third.
That misfortune was countered by some good fortune when Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel held Kim while Fernando Tatis Jr. had trouble picking up the ball.
Betts skied the next pitch toward second base, where Tatis caught the ball to end the inning.
Sheets’ diving stop of a hard grounder to first base by Kyle Tucker and subsequent throw erased Freddie Freeman at second base after his walk to start the seventh. And after Tucker stole second, King retired Will Smith and Max Muncy.
Adam got two quick outs in the eighth before a walk and a single made for some tension. But he ended the inning on Betts’ grounder to shortstop.
The Padres had just four hits, three off Yamamoto (3-4, 3.32).
But the first of those hits was Andujar turning on a splitter and sending it into the seats beyond left field in the first inning.
“Yamamoto pitched a great game tonight,” Stammen said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. … And he threw a great game tonight, mixed up his pitches really well. So we battled him as best we can.”
