Michael King completes historic shutout of Rockies by himself in Padres' rout

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Apr 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SAN DIEGO — Padres starting pitchers turned a corner by running through the Colorado Rockies as if they weren’t there.

It was Michael King’s turn to shut out Major League Baseball’s worst team on Sunday. King didn’t even need any other pitchers to help complete the job.

King retired all but three of the 29 batters he faced in the first complete game of his career, and a 6-0 victory over the Rockies was the Padres’ third consecutive shutout and sixth in their first 10 home games of the season.

Their second laugher in three games against the Rockies extended the Padres’ best start at home to 10-0 and improved their MLB-best record to 13-3. The only other time a Padres team began a season 13-3 was the 1998 club, which kept playing all the way to that year’s World Series.

The Padres kept piling up hits (11, their 10th time with at least 10) and big innings (their fifth with at least four runs).

But the story was the Padres pitching staff following up 8-0 and 2-0 victories by blanking the Rockies again, the first time since 1988 a Padres staff has recorded three shutouts in a row and the first time they have ever shut out a team over an entire three-game series.

It was just the 34th time since 1901 that any MLB team has done it.

The 1966 Cleveland Indians are the only other team to have six shutouts in their first 16 games in a season, and the 1981 Texas Rangers are the only team to have six shutouts in their first 10 home games. The 2010 Padres are the only other team in franchise history to have six shutouts in any 16-game span during a season.

And on the heels of a rough spate, King and fellow starters Nick Pivetta and Kyle Hart were practically unhittable. Going back to Randy Vásquez’s start Wednesday against the Athletics, the past four Padres starters have allowed one run and seven hits in 27 innings.

This four-game stretch follows a turn through the rotation in which the team’s five starters had an 11.21 ERA and 2.55 WHIP while working 17 2/3 innings.

The Rockies were 6 for 72 against Padres starters. And Kyle Farmer had four of those hits. That was 3 for 25 in seven innings against Pivetta, 1 for 19 in six innings against Hart and 2 for 28 against King. Pivetta and King walked one batter apiece.

In all, the Rockies were 9 for 88 in the series. They arrived in San Diego with a 3-9 record and a .243 batting average and departed with 12 losses and a .218 average.

King began Sunday’s game by retiring 13 straight batters before Michael Toglia grounded a single through the right side with one out in the fifth. The Rockies’ next baserunner came on a walk in the eighth. Ezequiel Tovar’s one-out single in the ninth was their second hit.

The Padres started scoring right away, as they have in half their games.

Eight Padres batted in the bottom of the first, as the Padres scored in the first inning for the eighth game. This time, more than they had all season.

Their four-run barrage began with Fernando Tatis Jr. striking out before Luis Arraez singled and Manny Machado walked.

After Xander Bogaerts hit a fly ball out to right field is when the scoring got started. And it was three consecutive RBI hits by players who were in spring training on minor-league deals that did it — singles by Oscar Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel and a double by Jose Iglesias.

Another double by Iglesias led to the Padres’ fifth run, in the fourth inning, when Tatis’ double-play grounder with the bases loaded drove in Iglesias from third. Manny Machado’s led-off double and Jason Heyward’s one-out single made it 6-0 in the seventh.

____