And so it begins.

The first regular-season game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres began on Monday night.

The Dodgers came to San Diego for a three-game weekday series against the Padres. Going into the series, LA stands just 0.5 games ahead of San Diego in the standings with the Dodgers at 29-18 and the Friars at 28-18. Both squads are on a roll as Dave Roberts‘ Dodgers have won five consecutive games and Craig Stammen‘s Padres just came back from Seattle, where they swept the Mariners.

Michael King took the hill for the Padres on Monday night, looking to build off of his previous two starts.

In his last two outings, King combined for 11 2/3 innings pitched, while allowing just two earned runs on seven hits. Michael King has a record of 2-0 with an ERA of 2.82 and 26 strikeouts in his five appearances versus Los Angeles in his career. Dominant Japanese-born Yoshinobu Yamamoto started for the Dodgers. Last time out for Yamamoto against San Francisco on May 12, he allowed five earned runs in his 6 1/3 innings of work, while striking out eight men.

Monday’s lineup

The National League Player of the Week, Gavin Sheets, and his absurd 2.177 OPS from that stretch, slide into the three-spot in the lineup on Monday.

Tonight’s starters. pic.twitter.com/M0y3Qz3tK5

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 18, 2026

Andujar puts the Padres on the board

Miguel Andujar sent a Yamamoto splitter 376 ft into the left field seats to put San Diego on top in the first.

Let the big dawg eat. pic.twitter.com/hQaspkElBA

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 19, 2026

Durán hoses a few

Rookie Rodolfo Durán shut down the running game early on Monday. He’d throw out a pair of MVPs in Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani.

Rodolfo Duran catches Mookie Betts on the steal, and Michael King strikes out Freddie Freeman for the strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play#Padres #ForTheFaithful pic.twitter.com/nzBof5mJ6V

— Carlos (@LFGPads19) May 19, 2026

Rodolfo Duran has caught 2 Dodgers base runners stealing today

He gets Ohtani here#padres #Forthefaithful pic.twitter.com/n8BHLcIwOL

— Carlos (@LFGPads19) May 19, 2026

King-like outing

Michael King was outstanding on Monday, delivering his best start so far in 2026. King completed seven innings of work, allowing four hits, no earned runs, walking two, all while punching out a season-high nine batters. The right-hander tossed an even 100 pitches, with 65 of them being for strikes. King induced 12 whiffs against the Dodgers’ offense. Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Max Muncy all struck out to King twice.

Michael King, Painted 92mph Front Door Two Seamer. ?️? pic.twitter.com/ekn8pyo4zL

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 19, 2026

Adam and Miller complete the game

Jason Adam came on in the top of the eighth in relief of the starter King. Adam tosses scoreless eighth, throwing 25 pitches. He avoided some two-out traffic after Hyeseong Kim walked and Ohtani singled to put runners on the corners. Mookie Betts grounded out to Xander Bogaerts for the final out of the inning.

Mason Miller entered the game for San Diego in the ninth. Freddie Freeman and Kyler Tucker walked to start the inning. Through Miller’s first 10 pitches, nine of them were balls. Will Smith flew out to Jackson Merrill for the elusive first out. Miller came back to strike out Muncy on three pitches, for Muncy’s third K of the game. Miller induced a ground ball from Andy Pages for the final out of the game.

The #Padres have a 4-game win streak and have now taken game 1 of the series against the Dodgers

Michael King throws a gem to help out the Padres and Mason Miller gets the save pic.twitter.com/E07chERBZG

— Carlos (@LFGPads19) May 19, 2026

Wrap-up

Andujar and King were the difference in the game.

Andujar: 2-4 HR, RBI, R

King: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 100 pitches

King got his fourth win of the year, dropping his ERA to 2.31. Yamamoto’s lone earned run allowed would be enough to receive his fourth loss of the season. Miller recorded his league-leading 15th save of the 2026 season.

This marked just the second time that a Padres starting pitcher has gotten more than 18 outs.

San Diego improves their record to 29-18 and takes a 0.5 game lead over LA in the standings, whose record now falls to 29-19 on the season.

Middle game on Tuesday

The Padres will look to win the series on Tuesday. The Padres and Dodgers will face off again on Tuesday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 PM PT. 26-year-old Emmet Sheehan will take the mound for the Dodgers as Griffin Canning will make his fourth start as a Padre, after a rough outing in Milwaukee.

Angel Flores

Angel grew up a San Diego sports fan, following the Padres, SDSU athletics, San Diego FC, as well as the Chargers. He is currently a third year community college student, and will transfer to SDSU to pursue a career in Journalism.