The San Diego Padres tapped Michael King to start Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves, and he delivered a stellar performance.

He was the Padres’ most consistent starting pitcher in the regular season, giving them 14 quality starts. That was two fewer than Cease. But King also had just seven starts in which he gave up three or more earned runs, which was eight fewer times than Cease.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hits a towering two-run homer on his first playoff swing in four years and King dominates in his first postseason start as the Padres roll to a 4-0 win at Petco Park. Game 2 is

King threw two innings of relief for the Yankees on Oct. 7, 2020 in a virtually empty Petco Park. Now he'll start Game 1 for San Diego.

Fernando Tatis and Kyle Higashioka homer as Padres move within a game of eliminating Braves from wild-card series

Michael King struck out 12 in seven shutout innings and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a massive two-run homer to help the host San Diego Padres notch a 4-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday in Game 1 of a National League wild-card series.

The former standout at Bishop Hendricken and Boston College became the first pitcher to have 12 strikeouts with no runs and no walks allowed in his first career postseason start.

King made his postseason debut for the Yankees during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season at eerily empty Petco Park. He expects the crowd to be “absolutely nuts” when he starts for the home team

Mike Shildt said he could have picked his initial postseason rotation out of a hat. He doubled back to make sure the reporters gathered around him on the fourth-floor press conference room at Petco Park understood he was joking.