Michael King kept his postseason run moving in Game 2 of the NLDS, working through four perfect innings before leaving with a 2-1 lead in the sixth against the Brewers. He is now 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA in two starts totaling 12.0 innings to open the postseason, and the Padres have gotten exactly what they needed from a starter who has looked calm from the first pitch.
That is why Padres Game Tomorrow searches are centering on King now: he has been one of October’s best arms, not just in one outing but across two. He finished the 2026 regular season 12-10 with a 3.21 ERA in 32 starts, then carried that form into the playoffs, where his work against the Brewers fit the kind of night that can tilt a series before the bullpen takes over. The inning-by-inning line was clean enough to matter on its own, but the larger point was bigger than one start. King is in the middle of his third season with the San Diego Padres, and this stretch is starting to look like the sort of run that changes how a club leans on a pitcher in October.
There is still a hard question underneath the performance: why pull him after 5-plus innings when he was still carrying that edge? One clue is the historical company he has joined. Jesse Rogers noted that King became the first pitcher with a no-hit bid of 6+ innings in a postseason game since Zac Gallen in Game 5 of the 2023 World Series, and Sarah Langs pointed out that pitchers with two no-hit bids of at least four innings in a single postseason now include King, Blake Snell, Justin Verlander and Mordecai Brown. That puts his work against the Brewers in a very small frame, but it also leaves the immediate decision hanging in the air: the Padres got a strong start, yet they still chose to turn away from a pitcher who was dealing.
King’s October surge also carries a longer echo. He was picked in the 12th round of the 2016 MLB Draft, spent the first five years of his MLB career with the Yankees, and went 13-17 with a 3.38 ERA in 115 games and 19 starts in the Bronx before finding another gear in San Diego. For now, the answer to what comes next is simple enough: King was available in relief in Game 3, and after another outing like this, the Padres have every reason to keep him close.
Ben Stinar wrote the Heavy.com article that tracked the night, but the story on the field belongs to King. He is not just surviving in October. He is forcing the game to bend around him.
