Michael King had already thrown 72 pitches for San Diego on Sunday. On Tuesday night, with the Padres’ season six outs from ending and their two best late-inning relievers unavailable, the starter walked out of the bullpen and did something he had not done in more than four years.
He closed a game.
King worked the final two innings of the Padres’ tense 4–3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on October 6, securing his first postseason save and keeping San Diego alive in the National League Division Series. The Brewers still lead the best-of-five matchup 2–1, but Game 4 is now set for Wednesday night at Petco Park.
“I have bullets in my arm that I don’t want to save,” King said after the win, according to MLB.com’s official Padres report.
The bullpen plan disappeared before first pitch
San Diego expected to lean on closer Mason Miller in an elimination game. Instead, Miller went on the postseason paternity list shortly before first pitch. Setup specialist Adrian Morejon was also unavailable because of what manager Craig Stammen described as shoulder “stickiness.”
That left the Padres improvising against a Milwaukee club that won an MLB-best 103 games in the regular season.
King volunteered anyway. He had started Game 2 on Sunday and thrown 72 pitches over five innings. By Tuesday, he was back on the mound for a 40-pitch, six-out save, allowing one hit and two walks. Reuters’ game account confirmed that King made himself available to Stammen before the game and knew he could be needed late.
King became the 16th pitcher since saves became an official statistic in 1969 to start five innings and record a save in the same postseason series. The last was his current teammate Walker Buehler in the 2024 World Series.
Cronenworth changed the game with one swing
San Diego took a 2–0 lead in the third inning. Samad Taylor singled, stole second and scored on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s groundout. Jackson Merrill then singled, stole second and came home on Manny Machado’s RBI single.
Milwaukee answered. William Contreras homered in the fourth, and Jackson Chourio’s sacrifice fly tied the game in the fifth.
Then Jake Cronenworth attacked the first pitch he saw from left-hander JoJo Romero. He drove a sweeper over the wall to put San Diego ahead 3–2. The Padres added what became the winning run in the sixth when Xander Bogaerts hustled home after a throwing error.
The Brewers pulled within one on Christian Yelich’s seventh-inning RBI single—his first postseason RBI since 2018—but left 11 runners on base. The Associated Press report noted that all three games in the series have been decided by one run, the first postseason series to open that way since the 2021 NLCS.
A 107 mph ending landed in the right glove
King cruised through the eighth, then the ninth tightened fast. After retiring one of the first two hitters, he walked Contreras and Brice Turang. Yelich represented the go-ahead run.
Yelich hit King’s 40th pitch at 107 mph up the middle. Bogaerts dropped to field the short hop, stepped on second and threw to first for the game-ending double play.
It was not a routine ball. MLB’s Brewers coverage gave it an expected batting average of .630. One different bounce could have ended San Diego’s season.
Instead, the Brewers absorbed their 12th consecutive postseason road loss, tying the longest such streak in major-league history. Milwaukee is now 6–24 all time in road playoff games, according to MLB.com’s official Brewers report.
What happens next
The Padres remain one loss from elimination. Game 4 begins Wednesday, October 7, at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT, in San Diego. Buehler is scheduled to start for the Padres.
If San Diego wins again, the series returns to Milwaukee for a decisive Game 5 on Friday. If the Brewers win, they advance.
The Padres did not erase their deficit Tuesday. They did something more immediate: they survived it. And they did it by asking a starter on short rest to take the ball with no margin left.
