Luis Arraez singles in ninth inning scores Tyler Wade; Michael King and Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow combine for historic night
The way Major League Baseball is played these days, with power valued above all else and the strikeout accepted as a byproduct, games can sometimes seem like a bit of a slog of all-or-nothing results.
Whether that is a good thing or not can be debated — and often is.
Friday night at Petco Park, however, was beyond reproach.
Padres starter Michael King and Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow put on a show that owed far more to their excellence than anything else.
“You know, some days as a position player, you don’t want to give any credit to any pitchers, but today you kind of have to,” the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman said. “... Just a well-pitched ball game on both sides.”
King struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings. Glasnow struck out 10 in seven innings.
It was the first game since at least 1893 — since they started pitching from 60 feet, six inches — that both starting pitchers in a game went at least seven innings, struck out at least 10 batters and did not allow more than two hits.
The difference between the two starters was that Luis Campusano hit a home run off Glasnow, the only hit he allowed.
The difference in the game was that Campusano doubled against Dodgers reliever Michael Grove to lead off the ninth, and Luis Arraez hit a one-out single to drive in pinch-runner Tyler Wade and give the Padres a 2-1 walk-off victory.
“Really good game for the catcher (and) pitchers,” an ebullient Arraez said after his first game at Petco Park following his trade from Miami on May 3. “This game was amazing.The Dodgers entered Friday riding a seven-game winning streak and averaging more runs per game (5.49) than any team in the major leagues. The Padres had won six of their past eight and were averaging 4.97 runs per game, eighth in the majors.
Both offenses ran into buzzsaws.
“Two really, really good pitching performances,” Jake Cronenworth said. “Both guys had it going.”
King struck out four in a row between the second out of the first inning and second out of the second.
An error by first baseman Jake Cronenworth extended the second inning, and King followed that by issuing a four-pitch walk and then ending the inning with a three-pitch strikeout.
Glasnow struck out five in a row from the final out of the first through the first out of the third.
That’s when Campusano came to the plate and jumped on a first-pitch fastball to give his battery mate the lead.
King had eight strikeouts through three innings. Glasnow had eight strikeouts in four innings.
In between Mookie Betts’ fly ball out to shallow right field to start the game and Teoscar Hernandez’s fly ball out to center field to begin the seventh inning, the only other balls to reach the outfield against King were soft singles by Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
“He shoved,” Glasnow said of King. “He did a great job.”
Aside from Campusano’s homer, the only other fly ball against Glasnow was Fernando Tatis Jr.’s out in the second inning. Glasnow followed walks in the fifth and sixth by getting double play grounders.
The Dodgers tied the game in the eighth inning against Yuki Matsui when Betts led off with a single that caromed off Matsui’s shin at 103.4 mph, went to third on Shohei Ohtani’s double and scored on Freddie Freeman’s sacrifice fly.
Friday was just the second time the Dodgers have lost in Glasnow’s nine starts. He has allowed four runs over 28 innings in his past four starts.
“He was great,” Arraez said. “Everybody knows he’s a really good pitcher. But King did amazing.”
The start for King was a significant positive for the Padres, whose rotation has run hot and cold through the season’s first month-and-a-half.
King, in his first season as full-time starter, has contributed to the peaks and valleys.
He had a couple magnificent starts before Friday, including his holding the Brewers hitless for 6⅔ innings on April 17. He did not allow the Giants a run in seven innings on April 6 and in his last start shut out the Diamondbacks over six innings.
There were also three starts in which he allowed four or more runs. One of those was April 12 in Los Angeles, a game the Padres won despite King surrendering four home runs and yielding seven runs in all.
What he did on Friday was throw strike after strike early in counts. His fastball was well-located, and his changeup and sweeper moved as if guided by remote control.
“That’s a really good ballclub over there,” Campusano said. “He just came out and executed.”
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