San Diego, CA

Michael King starts strong, then Padres’ bullpen finishes off Pirates

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1 year ago

August 14, 2024

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Michael King starts strong, then Padres’ bullpen finishes off Pirates

The Padres’ bullpen can take a long deep breath on Thursday.

Rather, it should take a long deep breath then.

Because a three-game stay at hitter-friendly Coors Field sits on the other side of Thursday’s oasis and that will start a string of 18 straight games that will carry the season into September.

Michael King did what he could to provide an early blow with six strong innings on Tuesday. Then David Peralta provided some late thunder via his fifth homer and the bullpen again walked a tight rope in securing a 3-0 win in front of a sellout crowd of 42,949 at Petco Park.

“We got the horses down there that like you could just turn it over in a (tight) game,” King said after getting the Padres started on winning for the 18th time in 21 games, a franchise first. “Honestly that’s why we’re winning a lot of close games.”

This victory clinched the Padres’ eighth straight series win heading into Wednesday’s finale against a reeling Pirates team that has lost nine in a row and all five so far this season to the Padres.

It’s a push that has the Padres perched atop the NL wild-card standings with the Diamondbacks, but it has not been easy of late as five of the previous six games had been decided by a single run and the Padres were victorious in all but Sunday’s game in Miami.

The Padres only had a three-run cushion at the end after Manny Machado singled through the middle of the infield in the eighth to drive in Luis Arraez, who singled to start the inning and moved to second when Bryan De La Cruz fumbled the ball in right field.

Before that, the Padres had pinned their hopes on King’s gem, earlier gifts from the Pirates and Jason Adam and Tanner Scott stranding runners at third base in the seventh and eighth innings.

Robert Suarez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 27th save.

“It’s been 50-50,” Machado said. “You’re just talking about one week worth of baseball. It’s been tight. I mean, baseball’s up and down. Honestly in that week we’ve been winning games. That’s all that really matters at the end of the day. Two weeks ago, we were scoring runs and pitching wasn’t giving up any runs. Now it’s flipped. Now it’s been we’ve been hitting and we’ve been giving up some runs and it’s been tight games. …

“It’s the beauty of baseball. Every week it’s something different. You just gotta try to come out on the opposite side of winning ballgames and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Indeed.

The Padres entered Tuesday with a 17-13 record in one-run games and a 28-19 record in two-run games.

Peralta’s 410-foot blast to right in the fifth inning certainly allowed King to breathe a bit easier Tuesday.

He struck out 10 batters in turning in the first quality start by a Padres pitcher other than Martín Pérez since King pitched into the seventh inning in a win on July 27 in Baltimore.

King still needed to tread carefully because he allowed seven hits — albeit on quite a bit of soft contact — but two double plays carried quite a bit of water.

The first was started by Cronenworth at first base in the fifth inning, ending the frame after Andrew McCutchen’s one-out single.

King helped his own case after Oneil Cruz led off the sixth with a single, fielding a comebacker from Joey Bart and whirling to second to start a double play. He then struck out Rowdy Tellez for his 10th punchout and walked off the mound with just 93 pitches over six innings.

“I always judge my outings based on how many innings I can go,” King said. “I think that the most valuable thing a starting pitch can do is go deep into games. And it’s not something that I am thinking about when I’m out there. But the double plays really, really helped that pitch count.”

King did not walk a batter in a start for the first time in 15 starts. None of the hits he allowed went for extra bases and three didn’t crack 75 mph off the bat.

After King’s exit, Adam was the first reliever out of the gate and he stranded a runner at third with two strikeouts after hitting a batter to start the seventh.

Scott also left a runner on third in the eighth despite allowing a one-out double to Bryan Reynolds and Suarez allowed a two-out single in the ninth before ending the game.

The arrival of Adam, of course, was the start a bullpen overhaul that saw Scott and swingman Bryan Hoeing arrive from Miami shortly after.

Since Adam’s arrival on July 29, the bullpen’s ERA entering Tuesday was 2.75, fourth lowest among relief corps over that stretch.

The Padres did not collect a hit on Tuesday until Cronenworth’s leadoff single in the fourth inning and he was promptly picked off first base.

King was still protecting a lead, however, because of the Pirates’ first-inning gifts.

Like Arraez’s leadoff walk, a Luis Ortiz breaking ball that struck Jurickson Profar in the foot and the missed catch at second base on Cronenworth’s would-be, double-play tapper back to the mound.

That loaded the bases and Machado cashed in one run on a sacrifice fly to center field. But the rally was halted immediately after that when Xander Bogaerts bounced to third base to start an inning-ending double play.

Originally Published: August 13, 2024 at 9:14 p.m.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border

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21 minutes ago

January 6, 2026

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San Diego sues federal government over razor wire fence near U.S.-Mexico border

The city of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges the construction of a razor wire fence near the U.S.-Mexico border constitutes trespassing on city property and has caused environmental harm to the land.

The complaint filed Monday in San Diego federal court states that razor wire fencing being constructed by U.S. Marines in the Marron Valley area has harmed protected plant and wildlife habitats and that the presence of federal personnel there represents unpermitted trespassing.

The lawsuit, which names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Defense among its defendants, says that city officials first discovered the presence of Marines and federal employees in the area in December.

The fencing under construction has blocked city officials from accessing the property to assess and manage the land, and the construction efforts have” caused and will continue to cause property damage and adverse environmental impacts,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit seeks an injunction ordering the defendants to cease and desist from any further trespass or construction in the area.

“The city of San Diego will not allow federal agencies to disregard the law and damage city property,” City Attorney Heather Ferbert said in a statement. “We are taking decisive action to protect sensitive habitats, uphold environmental commitments and ensure that the rights and resources of our community are respected.”

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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song

Published

12 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Press Room

Padres roster review: Sung-Mun song – San Diego Union-Tribune

SUNG-MUN SONG

Position(s): Third base, second base
Bats / Throws: Left / Right
2026 opening day age: 29
Height / Weight: 6-foot / 194 pounds
How acquired: Signed as a free agent in December 2025
Contract status: A four-year, $15 million deal will see Song make $2.5 million in 2026, $3 million in 2027, $3.5 million in 2028 and $4 million in 2029 if he does not opt out of last year; Half of his $1 million signing bonus is due in January 2026 and the other half in 2027; There is a $7 million mutual option for 2030.
fWAR in 2025: N/A
Key 2025 stats (KBO): .315 AVG, .387 OBP, .530 SLG, 26 HRs, 90 RBIs, 103 runs, 68 walks, 96 strikeouts, 25 steals (144 games, 646 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

.214 — Song’s isolated power in 2025, a career high as he prepared for a jump to the majors. Isolated power measures a player’s raw power (extra bases per at-bat) and Song had a .190 OPS in 2018, in his third year as a pro in Korea, before it dropped to .101 in 2019 and then a career-low .095 in 2023. Hitting 19 homers pushed Song’s isolated power to .178 in 2024 and then a career-high 26 homers push it even higher in 2025.

Idle — Drafted by the Heroes in 2014, Song debuted in the KBO the following year but didn’t become a regular until 2019. A drop-off in production — he had an .884 OPS in 78 games in 2018 and a .597 OPS in 103 games in 2019 — was followed by losing the 2020 season and a chunk of the 2021 season to military service obligations. Then three straight sub-.700 OPS seasons forced Song to rethink his approach to professional baseball, especially in the face of the likes of Ha-Seong Kim, Jung Hoo Lee and Hyeseong Kim generating big-league buzz. Song started with weight training and nutrition. A hitting coach also helped him with balance, pull-side power and the ability to catch up with the sort of fastballs that seem to dog Korean players when they arrive in the States. It all added up to a breakthrough year in which Song paired 19 homers, 104 RBIs and 21 steals with a .340/.409/.518 batting line. To prove it was no fluke, Song followed up his 2024 season with another strong effort that solidified his wish to try his hand in the majors. The ensuing, four-year, $15 million deal that Song signed with the Padres in December cost his new employer a $3 million posting fee to be paid to the Kiwoom Heroes.

2026 OUTLOOK

Like Kim before him, Song appears to be joining the Padres as a utility player with the hope that he blossoms into more as he gets comfortable in a new country and league. Song had experience in Korea at third base (500 starts), second base (149 starts) and first base (38 starts). Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller even mentioned outfield reps in passing as he assessed how Song could help the Padres in 2026.

Former KBO player Sung-Mun Song shakes hands with Padres vice president of amateur and international scouting Pete DeYoung after signing a contract with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Saturday. (Photo by Armond Feffer/San Diego Padres)

ROSTER RANKINGS

24. INF Sung-Mun Song
25. RHP Matt Waldron
26. OF Bryce Johnson
27. RHP Ron Marinaccio
28. RHP Bryan Hoeing
29. LHP Kyle Hart
30. RHP Jhony Brito
31. INF Will Wagner
32. OF Tirso Ornelas
33. RHP Garrett Hawkins
34. RHP Miguel Mendez
35. RHP Daison Acosta
36. RHP Ty Adcock
37. RHP Alek Jacob
38. INF Mason McCoy

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San Diego, CA

Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer

Published

1 day ago

January 5, 2026

Press Room

Poway removes hundreds of trees to make city safer

Drivers traveling through the city of Poway may have noticed a dramatic change to the landscape. Since September, more than 1,400 trees — many of them eucalyptus — have been removed as part of the city’s hazardous mitigation grant project aimed at reducing wildfire risk and improving public safety.

Poway is spending roughly $3 million on the effort, which focuses on removing trees that are dead, dying or considered dangerous. Much of the cost is being reimbursed by FEMA. Officials say the project is designed to make emergency evacuation routes safer while improving the overall health of trees along major roadways, rights-of-way and open spaces.

“I was relieved that there were some efforts being put into improving our resiliency to wildfire in our community,” said Poway Fire Chief Brian Mitchell.

Mitchell said spacing out trees can slow the spread of a wildfire and prevent roads from becoming blocked during an emergency.

“That certainly has the potential to block our first responders from accessing somebody’s house in the middle of an emergency,” Mitchell said.

City leaders also point to storm safety as a key reason for removing hazardous trees under controlled conditions rather than risking falling limbs or entire trees during severe weather.

“I don’t want to be driving down that street and just a random limb just happened to collapse, you know, just hit me,” said Poway resident Dawn Davis.

Davis said she also worries about the threat the trees pose to nearby homes.

“I don’t want anybody’s homes here to be damaged, either by them or fire,” Davis said.

A Poway spokeswoman said a certified arborist evaluated nearly 6,800 trees in Poway. About 2,800 invasive trees were recommended for removal.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.

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