Padres Starter Wants to Throw Perfect Game Every Time

Maren Angus-Coombs | Apr 20, 2024

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

San Diego Padres starting pitching Michael King has a simple, yet complicated, approach to every single start. He wants to be perfect.

Not all pitchers take that approach. Some don't even want to know if they are throwing a no-hitter because getting hung up on baserunners can negatively impact them.

However, King isn't concerned with knowing what is going on. He knew he was throwing a no-hitter deep into the seventh inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.

“The first hit,” he said, “I go, ‘Dammit, there goes the no-hitter.’”

He also admitted that he acknowledged losing his perfect bid in the third inning when he allowed two walks.

“I’m trying to go perfect every time,” he said.

King was dominant in his start against the Brewers. He threw a first-pitch strike to 22 of the 26 batters he faced and had 10 strikeouts. He went through a stretch of retiring 15 consecutive batters, ending with Willy Adames’ single ending his no-hit bid.

“That’s the King I know,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “He’s mixing and matching, keeping guys off-balance, getting swing and miss. And getting ahead of guys was huge for him today. … I think he’ll probably agree he hasn’t been as consistent as he wants to be this year, but that’s what we and he expects for himself. Maybe you don’t take a no-hitter into the seventh inning every game, but I mean, just the type of chewing through hitters, going deep into games, that’s kind of what I’ve come to expect from him.”

Wednesday marked King's fourth start of the year and second with him going seven innings without allowing a run but he doesn't think it was his best. He said it didn’t have the same feel as his third-to-last start for the Yankees, Sept. 20 in Toronto when he struck out 13 without a walk.

“I still didn’t feel as powerful as I have in the past,” he said about Wednesday. “I just felt like I executed really well. So hopefully in my future, I can have one of those where it’s powerful and execution, and then we can get on a roll.”

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