BOSTON – It requires less effort now for Michael King to keep his competitive juices in check here.
Fenway Park was the place closest to where he grew up and went to school. The former standout at Bishop Hendricken and Boston College will always feel some sort of attachment, even as a visiting pitcher.
Friday afternoon marked his seventh career appearance and third start at this venue. That it came on what developed into a sun-splashed Opening Day for the Red Sox was just part of the package. King absorbed his first defeat of the season with the Padres, and it just happened to be in front of family and friends.
Willson Contreras and Marcelo Mayer each cracked home runs in the bottom of the sixth inning while lifting Boston to a 5-2 triumph on April 3. The sellout crowd of 36,233 fans saw the home team snap a 2-2 tie thanks to a solo shot by Contreras and a two-run blast by Mayer against reliever Wandy Peralta. The Red Sox ended their five-game losing streak thanks to what qualifies for them to date as an offensive breakout.
“It’s always fun,” King said. “Good atmosphere. Warmer than I expected – I was kind of wishing for it to be a little bit colder.”
That’s spoken like a New Englander, and King certainly would have worked in plenty of spring games with the Hawks and Eagles where an extra layer under the uniform top would have been needed. The right-hander threw six strong innings while winning his last time out here in 2024 and came a couple batters shy of potentially repeating the same. Contreras jumped on a middle-middle sinker with one out in the sixth and sent it onto Lansdowne Street, one swing that wound up the game’s turning point.
“They were aggressive,” King said. “We played into it early – got a lot of soft contact. And then I threw a couple bad pitches that I wish I would have executed a little bit better.”
King walked one and struck out five while allowing seven hits and four earned runs. One of those was inherited – Peralta served up a first-pitch homer to Mayer into the visiting bullpen, and Wilyer Abreu coasted in from first base after his one-out single. That opened the Boston lead from just a sliver at 3-2 into something more comfortable, and San Diego was unable to mount any sort of rally.
“He pitched pretty good today,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Felt like the end of the fifth, a couple hard-hit balls. Sixth inning, a couple hard-hit balls.
“Then we felt like we had a matchup that was better in our favor with Wandy. It ended up not being that.”
Ceddanne Rafaela and Caleb Durbin each sent RBI singles to center field in the third and fourth innings, respectively. Those came after the Red Sox opened each frame with a leadoff double, putting King in a pair of jams. He worked out of more trouble in the fifth when second baseman Jake Cronenworth made a fantastic backhanded stab on a Trevor Story liner up the middle, starting a 4-3 double play.
“It was just incredible,” King said. “Line drive coming back at me, so I had to get out of the way. I thought it was for sure a single up the middle.”
King’s first professional outing here came with the Yankees in 2021, and the venue was still operating under some COVID-19 restrictions. It was a different scene five years later, with King an established veteran and the Back Bay buzzing long before the scheduled 2:10 p.m. first pitch. He signed a three-year, $75-million deal to remain with the Padres after reaching free agency last offseason.
“Even going to Boston College – we’re 20 minutes away from there,” King said. “Outside of actually playing I’ve been here way more than any other stadium in baseball.”
The occasion had King and his teammates operating under a different sort of limit. Tickets were scarce for family and friends, and King filled requests only for those closest to him. There was a time in the past where he might have been next to them in the grandstand – quite a bit has changed since he was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Rhode Island for the 2013 season.
“I liked being a fan out there,” King said. “I like it even more competing.”
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ex-Hendricken star Michael King takes loss for Padres vs. Red Sox
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