Player of the gameMichael KingSDP6.0ip 4h 0er 3bb 3k
Nearly 40 years ago, the Padres became the first team in Major League history to begin a game by hitting three consecutive home runs. In the four decades since Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn and John Kruk all took San Francisco’s Roger Mason deep on April 13, 1987, only 10 other pitchers have started a game by surrendering three straight homers. And now one of them has done it twice: Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, of all people. In the Padres’ 4-3 victory over New York on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado opened the game with consecutive homers -- just the 12th time in MLB history any team had done so, and the second time in Padres history. “Man, it was impressive,” said Tatis. “Just overjoyed seeing my teammates and myself putting good barrels out there against one of the best, if not the best, starter in the game.” Cole, meanwhile, found himself on the wrong side of baseball history. He’d also surrendered three homers to begin his outing on June 9, 2022, in Minnesota. The Yankees came back to win that day -- with then-New York reliever Michael King picking up a hold with a scoreless eighth inning. King ensured that wouldn’t happen again on Sunday, pitching six scoreless frames against his former club. Cole, meanwhile, wouldn’t allow another run until Luis Campusano’s solo homer in the seventh. That blast would prove decisive, after the Yankees rallied for three runs in the top of the eighth. “They put really good swings on the ball,” Cole said. “Sometimes it is what it is. You’ve got to separate that from doing your job, which is to continue to take it one pitch at a time and leave the mistakes behind you. You keep working.” Of the three first-inning home runs, Cole was ready to call only one of them a mistake pitch -- a hanging curve that Tatis swatted to right field to open the scoring.
