Michael King worked into the sixth inning and the Padres broke the game open with three runs in the third, beating the Mariners 4-1 on Tuesday night at Petco Park. The win stretched San Diego’s run to six straight games.
Ramón Laureano started the decisive rally with a triple off the wall in right field with one out, and Xander Bogaerts drove in three runs as the Padres improved to 38,152 on the night in front of 38,152 fans. King struck out five, allowed one run on four hits and threw 49 of 85 pitches for a 2.78 ERA, while Mason Miller finished with a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
For King, the outing was another step forward after an injury-riddled 2025 season in which he was limited to 73⅓ innings. He said he still does not feel fully confident in where his pitches are going and that he is making mechanical adjustments between starts, even if he tries not to think about them once he takes the mound. He also said he felt his mechanics were best in 2022, when he was a reliever and could work more consistently.
That matters for San Diego because the right-hander is trying to build back toward the form he showed in 2024, when he finished with a 2.95 ERA as a starter. Against Seattle, he got through six innings for the second time in recent outings, and Craig Stammen said King competed well and helped the club get through the sixth, a line that sounded as important as the result itself.
The gap between comfort and effectiveness still showed. King walked two batters and hit two more, a reminder that the start was solid rather than clean, even as he lowered his ERA to 2.78. Miller, meanwhile, kept rolling. His scoreless streak reached 29⅔ innings, the longest active run in the majors and four innings shy of Cla Meredith’s Padres record of 33⅔ innings from 2006.
The Padres’ six-game streak is their longest since a six-gamer from July 26-Aug. 1 last year, and the way they are winning now suggests a team getting contributions at both ends of the game. King is still searching for sharper command, but the inning count is climbing, the results are holding, and San Diego is carrying momentum into its next turn through the rotation.