Led by Michael King and the bats of Fernando Tatis Jr and Kyle Higashioka, the San Diego Padres defeated the Atlanta Braves in the first game of the National League Wild Card Series by a score of 3 to 0, but it was the pitcher that had an historic night.
Michael King had a night to remember after pitching 7 full innings, allowing just 5 hits and striking out 12 and walking no bases, something that he will see in the Major League Baseball record books forever.
Fight at Padres vs Giants MLB game turns into Royal Rumble in concourse
The former New York Yankees player became the first pitcher in Major League history to make his postseason debut achieving those numbers. Also, the last time the Padres had a double-digit struck out stat has back in 1998 with Kevin Brown.
How the Padres won Game 1
The San Diego Padres took the lead very quickly. In the same first inning, Luis Arrez opened the game for the friars with a single and then came Fernando Tatis Jr.; he only saw one pitch and it was enough to swing and hit a panoramic home run across left field, puting the ball on the second level of the stadium.
But the friars did not stop there. In the third inning, Jake Cronenworth opened the episode by being hit and after a single by Donovan Solano that put him at third, he reached home plate with a sacrifice fly by Kyle Higashioka to make the score 3-0.
Higashioka would add one more line to the Friars’ run count with a solo home run in the eighth inning, to make way for Robert Surez another day of a tired bullpen for the Atlanta Braves that was not prosperous, with four pitchers who did not even manage to pitch three innings. Atlanta will look to force a Game 3 as they nee to win on Wednesday.