Michael King’s stay off the injured list didn’t last long.
After making one start Saturday against the Red Sox, the Padres right-hander is heading back to the 15-day IL with knee inflammation.
Before that one outing, King had been out since May 18 with shoulder inflammation.
The injuries have limited King — who finished seventh in the National League Cy Young Award voting last year — to just 11 starts in 2025.
When he has been able to pitch, though, King has been excellent with a 2.81 ERA and 1.09 WHIP with 65 strikeouts in 57 2/3 innings.
It’s a notable loss for a San Diego team that not only sits ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West, but will also play a three-game series this weekend in Los Angeles.
King had been scheduled to start the series opener on Friday against Clayton Kershaw, but Randy Vasquez has been called up and is slated to either get the start or be a bulk pitcher, ESPN reported.
Even without King for most of the summer, the Padres have been one of the hottest teams in baseball, particularly in August after the All-Star break.
The team is 9-3 this month and winners of five in a row, including a three-game sweep of the Giants. After holding a 3.19 ERA in July, the team has mostly held steady with a 3.60 mark in August.
San Diego’s hot streak comes as the Dodgers have played middling ball for a good chunk of the summer, going 15-21 since the start of July.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
