SAN DIEGO-- When Padres ace Michael King makes his first start in nearly three months against the Boston Red Sox, he'll have his newest and biggest fan in attendance. His daughter and first child, born just weeks ago to Michael and his wife Sheila.
"Baby should be here tomorrow for her first baseball game," said a beaming King on Friday afternoon.
King, who was placed on the injured list on May 25th with a pinched nerve in his shoulder, later revealed to be a thoracic nerve issue, said it was an emotional journey to get back to the Padres and their playoff chase as he dealt with a life-changing event.
"I definitely had my pity party but a lot of fun things have happened in these last couple months. Obviously, I'm a dad. I've got a bunch of new teammates, we're playing really well and it's been a fun last couple of months. So I'm just glad to be a part of it now...it's way more fun to be part of a team that's winning and so cheering on your team as best as you possibly can is the best way that I could have supported and tried to get as many wins as possible. And now physically coming back and trying to get as many wins. So that's really the goal right now."
King wrote out his own throwing program and joked he was coming back a day later than he planned. But he wasn't joking when he discussed how anxious he was to get back to a much-enhanced Padres team, bolstered by the trade deadline acquisitions of Mason Miller, Nestor Cortes, Ryan O'Hearn, Ramon Laureano and Freddy Fermin.
"I don't think I've been on a team as good as this. All I want to do is contribute and let the offense bang and hopefully I can give up less runs than we score every time out. I think that like top down, if you're looking at even our team last year or any team I've been on, it's best bullpen I've been a part of, best rotation I've been a part of, probably best lineup I've been a part of. And when you have all three of those guys working, it's a pretty tough force. So the excitement for me to be a part of it is definitely real."
Neither King nor his manager would reveal what the pitch count would be but Mike Shildt said it would be somewhere "between 1 and 100."
"I know I've said it here for a little bit but once I started getting function back, it was really just building up. Physically feel great and now just trying to be efficient as I possibly can with the pitch count I have."
King threw only one rehab assignment for El Paso, allowing six runs on four hits and striking out five in 3 1/3 innings on 61 pitches.
Weeks after getting Yu Darvish back, Shildt was happy to add another pivotal piece of the Padres expected rotation.
"Michael's been a pillar for us all last year," said Shildt "He started out the season in really a Cy Young-type fashion. He's excited, I'm excited, the team's excited. Any time you get a guy like that, a top of the rotation guy back, clearly it means a lot to the team."
"It's huge, he's definitely been one of the best if not the best pitcher on our team, for even since last year." said Xander Bogaerts." So hopefully he comes back and has a nice healthy outing. I just think coming out healthy would be a win."
And for the first time all season, the Padres will have their projected starting rotation back together.
"It's awesome to get him back," said Manny Machado. "Our team is starting to get healthy and obviously we've seen what Darvish has been doing when he got back, it's definitely fun. And now to have King back there is going to be huge for us."