San Diego right-hander Michael King will look for a bounce-back outing when the Padres visit the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon.

King (4-3, 2.76 ERA) leads Padres starters in ERA, innings pitched (62) and strikeouts (63) and has given up two earned runs or less in eight of his 11 starts this season.

He was masterful in a May 18 outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers, tossing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 win. King struck out nine and walked two. But his most recent start was his worst of the season, as he gave up four runs on five hits in 3 2/3 innings Sunday in a 5-2 loss to the Athletics while striking out four and walking four.

“He just wasn’t quite as sharp as what we normally are accustomed to,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said after the game. “Four walks, some hits and just kind of deep in counts and stuff like that. So not his day today, but get him back out there next time and he’ll be just fine.”

King is 0-0 with a 4.91 ERA in three career appearances vs. the Nationals, who will counter Saturday with left-hander Foster Griffin (6-2, 3.63).

After a pair of subpar outings in which he gave up a combined 14 earned runs in 9 1/3 innings, Griffin turned in one of his best efforts of the season. On Sunday, he threw six shutout innings in a 2-1 win at the Atlanta Braves. He allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one.

“I feel like I had my backdoor stuff going pretty good,” Griffin said. “And I know when I have that early, it’s probably going to be a good day. I was able to keep that going throughout the game and mix speeds.”

Griffin has never faced the Padres, who on Friday snapped a four-game losing streak with a 7-5 win in the series opener.

San Diego rallied from a 4-1 third-inning deficit. Jackson Merrill’s two-run homer in the seventh gave the Padres the lead, and Mason Miller’s four-out save locked it down.

Merrill had not homered since May 4.

“I’ve been working with my teammates,” Merrill said. “They’ve been picking me up all the time. We’ve been playing good baseball. It just felt good to hit a ball that hard for the first time in a while.”

Miller retired Luis Garcia Jr. with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning en route to his 17th save. San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. had three hits, while Ty France had two, including a home run.

Curtis Mead and Keibert Ruiz homered for Washington, which has lost two straight games and opened a six-game homestand.

“The big thing for me was when we were ahead [in the count], we didn’t finish,” manager Blake Butera said. “We didn’t strike out a ton of guys. Felt like they did a really good job of spoiling some pitches.”

Five Washington pitchers combined for five strikeouts.

Mead hit his fourth home run in the last six games and is batting .320 with six RBIs during that span.

–Field Level Media

Milwaukee reliever Abner Uribe made news for the right reasons Friday night in the Brewers’ 5-4 win against the Houston Astros.

In the opener of a three-game interleague series, which will continue Saturday afternoon in Houston, Uribe escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning that allowed the Brewers to win in 10 innings. Milwaukee has won four games in a row and eight of its past 10.

Uribe was suspended for one game and fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Baseball for gestures toward the St. Louis Cardinals’ dugout on Tuesday. He appealed the suspension and was available for Milwaukee on Friday.

Uribe worked around an error, a hit and an intentional walk that loaded the bases with one out and the top of the Astros order due up. He struck out Brice Matthews before getting Isaac Paredes to pop out to end the threat.

Uribe opted not to comment on the suspension or his appeal following the victory. He downplayed the distraction from the situation, instead noting the normal steps he took on Friday.

“The mentality was the same as any other day,” Uribe said. “I go to the bullpen, do my routine and prepare myself to be ready for the game.

“We’re not paying any attention to that. We don’t want to distract ourselves from what our goal is here. We want to stay focused on the game and on winning games. I think we did a good job of going out there and showing that.”

Rookie right-hander Brandon Sproat (1-3, 5.84 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Brewers on Saturday. He allowed three runs on four hits and four walks with a career-high-tying seven strikeouts across four innings in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Sunday.

While Sproat has logged only one quality start in eight starts this season, the Brewers are 5-3 with him as their starter.

Sproat will start against the Astros for the first time in his career. He is 0-1 with a 5.47 ERA in five interleague appearances (four starts).

Right-hander Peter Lambert (3-4, 3.79 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Astros on Saturday. He snapped a two-start skid last Sunday against the Chicago Cubs, allowing three runs on five hits and four walks with five strikeouts across five innings in an 8-5 victory. Lambert had logged six-plus innings in three consecutive starts but went 1-2 with a 3.60 ERA in that span.

He is 0-1 with a 5.63 ERA in two career appearances (one start) against the Brewers. In his most recent outing against Milwaukee on July 3, 2024, Lambert worked 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Colorado Rockies, allowing two hits with two strikeouts in a 3-0 home loss.

After seemingly bouncing back following a woeful start to the season, Astros reliever Bryan Abreu issued consecutive four-pitch walks to open the eighth inning and was charged with the run that allowed the Brewers to pull even at 4-4 on Friday. Abreu had logged nine consecutive scoreless appearances before Friday after posting a 12.54 ERA in his first 11 games this season.

“We’ve got to create consistency in throwing strikes and staying ahead of hitters,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “That’s been the story for him this year. When he gets ahead, he’s extremely effective.

“His stuff is really good. We just have to get him to throw the ball more in the zone.”

–Field Level Media

With their four-game losing streak over, the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays will use the heart of their rotation Saturday afternoon when they face the Los Angeles Angels in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Rays moved to 20-5 at home by rallying from a 2-1 fifth-inning deficit to win 8-5 over the Angels on Friday.

Tampa Bay tallied seven times in the seventh inning as Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda became the first Rays players to hit back-to-back homers this season.

“When we get hot, it’s hard to get us out,” Diaz, who also led off the game with a homer, said of teammate Aranda, who leads the AL with 42 RBIs.

Diaz tops the AL in batting average at .313. Starting pitcher Nick Martinez (5-1, 1.62) turned in his 11th straight start of allowing two runs or less with his seven-inning, two-run effort.

Rays middle infielders Ben Williamson (back strain) and Taylor Walls (left hamstring) have been nicked up, but Williamson returned Friday at shortstop and went 1-for-2, while Walls played shortstop in the ninth.

Without Walls for a bit, plus Jake Fraley and Jonny DeLuca, the latter two for over a month apiece, the club welcomed its infielders in the series opener.

“Our depth has been tested a little bit,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said on Friday’s pre-game show. “Those three guys are big parts of our club. They get there in different ways whether it’s great defense, big at-bats or timely hitting.”

Drew Rasmussen (4-1, 2.78 ERA) will make his 11th start for Tampa Bay on Saturday. The right-hander has won both of his decisions in a four-start May.

Against the Angels in one start and one relief stint in his career, Rasmussen is 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 6 1/3 innings.

The Angels won’t be able to rely on ace Jose Soriano, whose turn will come up when they return home next week to face the Colorado Rockies, and starter Reid Detmers (1-5, 4.57 ERA) will be counted on Saturday to try to even the three-game series.

The left-hander has lost his last four decisions but is coming off his best start this season in the Angels’ 2-1 win Sunday over the Texas Rangers. Detmers was masterful in yielding just one hit and one run, a homer by Jake Burger, and striking out a career-high 14 without a walk.

He is 1-0 with an 0.84 ERA in five career appearances (three starts) against the Rays. The win occurred on May 10, 2022, when the rookie tossed the 12th no-hitter in Angels history in his 11th major league start. He fanned two and walked one.

Third on the Angels with nine homers behind Mike Trout (13) and Zach Neto (10), Jorge Soler got the night off Friday on the Rays’ new turf field, while Jo Adell slid into the cleanup spot.

“With (Soler’s) legs, we communicated with him and felt it wouldn’t be the best idea to get him on turf,” said Angels manager Kurt Suzuki. “We gave Mike (Trout) a day off his feet and DHing. (Soler) will be back in there tomorrow.”

The Angels are 5-2 in their past seven games, but third baseman Nick Madrigal went 2-for-4 in his first game since June 1, 2024, when he played for the Chicago Cubs.

Last in the AL in hitting at .229, Los Angeles produced 10 hits in Friday’s loss.

-Field Level Media