Right-hander Michael King hopes his new teammates are as generous with their support as they’ve been in his first two starts of the season when the San Diego Padres visit the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night.
After the teams split four games to open the Giants’ campaign in San Diego last week, San Francisco got a leg up when Thairo Estrada ended Friday’s home opener with a walk-off double in the ninth inning of a 3-2 game.
The Padres were limited to two runs and six hits by a trio of Giants pitchers. It was the sixth time already this season that San Diego has been held to three runs or fewer, with five of those games ending in losses.
King (1-0, 6.14 ERA) didn’t work any of those six contests. Rather, the first-year Padre has benefited from 28 runs of support in his two appearances — a 15-11 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 21 in South Korea and a 13-4 triumph over the Giants last Sunday in San Diego.
Despite being staked to a 12-0 lead, King couldn’t finish the required five innings to be eligible for a win against the Giants. He was pulled after four innings in which he walked seven, even though he had limited the visitors to two runs and two hits.
King, who played his first five seasons for the New York Yankees, has faced the Giants just one other time in his career, that coming in relief. The 28-year-old has an 0-1 record and 6.35 ERA against San Francisco.
King hopes the Giants’ lack of familiarity with him works in his favor Saturday.
“I don’t think I ever found a rhythm,” he said of last week’s outing. “I was searching mechanically out there … (The Giants) didn’t really get to see me because I just walked everybody. Hopefully it’s like the first time they’re seeing me (Saturday).”
This time, King will be seeing a Giants team riding the momentum of an exciting win in their home opener, which doubled as a homecoming for new manager Bob Melvin.
A San Francisco Bay Area native who played collegiately alongside the bay before joining the Giants for three seasons from 1986-88, Melvin was honored with a lengthy pregame video tribute that he humbly noted afterward was “a little much.”
“I was hoping we’d win. I didn’t expect the thing on the scoreboard,” he noted in his postgame press conference of his pregame expectations. “It ends up being a great day. I’ll think about it a little later. I’m still in the moment.”
After getting seven strong innings from Jordan Hicks, Melvin will send righty Keaton Winn (0-1, 5.40) to the mound on Saturday.
Winn was the losing pitcher in an 8-3 defeat against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, allowing three runs and four hits in five innings.
The 26-year-old has faced the Padres twice in relief in his career, recording a 0.90 ERA without a decision.
