Good morning,

When Michael King is truly on, it doesn’t matter who he is facing. Swing after awkward swing is what his pitches get.

That was not the King the Padres saw for most of his truncated outing last night.

That is not the King they have seen for more than spurts in his four starts since returning from the injured list, which were ostensibly to be tuneups for the postseason.

“I still have stuff to work on,” King said last night.

He said his 49 pitches in 2⅔ innings was a “step in the right direction” and the he was “happy-ish” with the outing.

Well, good.

Because this version of King, who spent nearly four months on the injured list in the middle of the season, is who the Padres have.

Same as the version of Dylan Cease and the version of Yu Darvish they are taking into the p

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