Even as rotation altered, Michael King feeling ‘great’
Ruben Niebla touched base with Michael King throughout Yu Darvish’s ramp-up.
Wednesday was the target for Darvish’s return. There was a good chance they were going to move Martín Pérez ahead of him, too.
They didn’t discuss why. They didn’t need to.
They all know King’s 150⅔ innings has blown right past his career high. There’s a month left to the season, too, and the postseason looms beyond September.
It’s all reason for outsiders to wonder about the quality of King’s starts and the life in his right arm moving forward.
But …
“I actually feel great,” King said. “It’s been — I don’t want to say surprising — but, like, I’ve seen a bunch of guys have huge innings jumps and once they get into like the August and September months are like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s a grind,’ and I actually feel very good. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve had stints like this where I got eight days. I know I had that dumb calf injury that gave me 10 days off.
“So it’s like, those kinds of things almost reset me, and I’ve been feeling great. Knock on wood.”
And then he did, reaching down to tap the shelving unit between his and Dylan Cease’s lockers. He then continued to dress for a second bullpen session since his last start in St. Louis on Aug. 29.
Darvish’s return to the rotation, as well as Tuesday’s off-day, allowed the Padres to push King back to start on Friday. The last time that King had this much time between starts was the 10 days after taking a comebacker off his calf in Baltimore on July 27. The Padres also used the All-Star break to give King 11 days between starts.
Not because he needed it.
Just because it’s the prudent thing to do, even if what Niebla is monitoring is far more detailed than counting pitches and innings and the days between starts.
It’s velo. It’s arm slot. It’s spin and movement.
