The San Diego Padres (14-7) close out the series this Sunday afternoon vs. the Los Angeles Angels (11-11).

For the Padres, they had Michael King on the hill, squaring off with a last-minute change in Walbert Urena for the Angels. Reid Detmers was supposed to go, but the Angels pushed his start to tomorrow. This was the winner-take-all game in the series after both teams split the first two.

Another pitchers’ duel from the starters

Today wasn’t Michael King’s sharpest day in terms of location and strikeouts, but he did a great job battling all day long. He had multiple instances of two guys on nobody out in his outing, but he was able to keep the scoreboard clean. His two-seam fastball and sinker were working overtime as the off-speed pitches were the struggle today. A large number of full counts and long at-bats would limit his outing today. King would finish the day throwing five innings, giving up one hit, four walks, no runs, and snagging six strikeouts.

For the Angels, Walbert Urena was making his first start of the season, and it was a very impressive showing. Coming in with a pretty consistent triple-digit fastball, he was very good out using that to keep hitters on their heels, while also working his off-speed pitches.  After mowing through the first three innings, the Padres made a little noise on the basepath.

Fernando Tatis Jr. got a single to right field to kick off the top half of the inning. Bringing up Jackson Merrill, who would fly out, but during his at-bat, Tatis stole second. Manny Machado would strike out; however, Xander Bogaerts would cash in with two outs, getting a single up the middle to bring Tatis in. San Diego leads 1-0.

Urena would go back to chopping down the lineup, but the Angels let him go a little too long, and he ran into trouble once again in the seventh. Back-to-back walks from Xander Bogaerts and Gavin Sheets sealed his fate. Walbert Urena finished with a line of six innings pitched, giving up four hits, two walks, two runs (both earned), and notching eight strikeouts. Sam Bachman came in and got Miguel Andujar to pop out to shortstop. Then Jake Cronenworth pinch hit for Luis Campusano, and he would strike out. But Bryce Johnson was up to bat, and he already with a solid start to the day with a double, slapped a single through a giant hole between second and third to extend the lead 2-0 for the Padres.

Bullpen keeps the lead in hand to capture the series in Anaheim

After Michael King was done, Ron Marinaccio came in the sixth. He was able to get the lead-off man, Mike Trout, out, but walked Noah Schanuel. Then, during Jorge Soler‘s at-bat, Marrinaccio threw a wild pitch way behind the hitter, Soler, advancing Schanuel to second. Able to get Soler to strikeout, he then gave up a walk to Yoan Moncada. But Marinaccio was able to close out the inning with a popout from Joe Adell.

To begin the bottom of the seventh, Kyle Hart was on the mound. He gave up a double to Oswald Peraza and hit Travis d’Arnaud to start his outing. Adam Frazier would lay down a sac-bunt to third to move the runs, and Manny Machado retired him for the first out of the inning. Manager Craig Stammen had a quick hook today, pulling Hart and putting in Bradgley Rodriguez. Rodriguez got a groundout from Zach Neto, but it brought a run across, 2-1 SD. The Padres then decided to intentionally walk Mike Trout, which gave Nolan Schanuel a chance to get the tying run across; unfortunately for the Angels, he flied out to center to finish the seventh.

Rodriguez would go out for the bottom of the eighth, and he kept his impressive start to the year going, getting his ERA down to 0.73. He would strike two of the three batters he faced in the eighth to hand the game over to Mason Miller.

Mason Miller came in the bottom of the ninth after having his “worst outing” of the season, which allowed two baserunners to reach. Pretty impressive when that’s viewed as a bad outing, but he made up for it today. Miller would get Oswald Peraza to ground out, then strike out both Vaughn Grissom and Logan O’Hoppe for his eighth save of the season and extend his scoreless inning streak to 32.2 innings. This is victory number fifteen for the Padres, coming 2-1 vs the Angels. Michael King was awarded his third win of the year.

Notable stats and what’s to come for the Padres

Xander Bogaerts was 2-2, had two hits and a walk, scoring once for a nice day at the plate. Bryce Johnson had a solid game—2-for-3 with an RBI, with consistent contact at the plate. Bradgley Rodríguez worked 1⅔ scoreless innings, didn’t allow any hits, struck out two, and issued one walk.

The San Diego Padres (15-7) are continuing their road trip to Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies (9-13), for a three-game set. First game is on Tuesday, April 2,1 at 5:40 PM PT. The Padres have Randy Vasquez throwing, who has had an excellent start to the season. The Rockies are still TBD for who will start.

Wyatt Dearen

Hi Padres fans, I’m Wyatt Dearen. I am from Farmington, New Mexico, which is home to one of the most prestigious high school baseball tournaments in America, the Connie Mack World Series. When it comes around, I do color and statistics for the radio. I am currently pursuing a degree in Sports Administration at the University of Houston #GoCoogs. I have been a sports fan my whole life, following all the major sports leagues since I could walk, and it has been my dream my whole life to work in sports. Thankful to write about the team and for the East VillageTimes.