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The New York Yankees were reluctant to include Michael King in a trade to the San Diego Padres for Juan Soto.

Ultimately the Padres were able to convince the Yankees to do so and it is a move working out for them in a competitive NL West.

King makes his return to New York Tuesday night as the Padres attempt to extend their winning streak to seven games when they face the slumping Yankees.

“I can’t let the hype get to me because I still got a job to do,” King said on Monday afternoon. “It’s a phenomenal lineup over there, so I got to channel that adrenaline and make sure I can have some success.”

King is taking the mound after the Padres improved to 4-0 on their season-high nine-game road trip by rallying in the eighth inning for a 4-3 victory. Manny Machado hit a two-run double off Devin Williams and Xander Bogaerts hit a go-ahead two-run single off Luke Weaver.

King (4-1, 2.09 ERA) went 13-17 in 115 appearances with the Yankees from 2019 through 2023. He made 10 starts in 2020 and 2021 before emerging as a reliable late-inning reliever in 2022 and 2023.

The Yankees began stretching him out to a starting pitcher late in the 2023 season. After going 1-4 with a 2.23 ERA in nine starts and striking out 51 in 40 1/3 innings. King was among five players sent to San Diego for Soto and Trent Grisham on Dec. 7, 2023.

In his first season with the Padres, King was 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA in 31 appearances, 30 starts, when he threw 173 2/3 innings, notched 201 strikeouts and held opponents to a .221 average. This season, King is holding opponents to a .191 average and allowed three runs or fewer in each start, including Wednesday’s win over the San Francisco Giants, whom he limited to one run on three hits in 5 2/3 innings.

“He’s become everything you would have hoped for and that he kind of showed us here through dominating in the ‘pen to finally getting in the rotation,” New York manager Aaron Boone said Monday afternoon. “And now he’s gone and done it over a full season, and now done it with the volume too. I can’t say I’m surprised. Talking about weapons, he’s got a lot of weapons to beat you.”

The Padres are attempting to match their longest winning streak of the season and will get Jackson Merrill back from missing a month with a strained right hamstring after the outfielder played in a pair of rehab games for Double-A San Antonio over the weekend.

The Yankees are 2-5 in their past seven games and their past nine losses are by two runs or fewer and they are trying to avoid their season-high fourth straight loss. Grisham hit a two-run homer as New York was held to six hits.

After New York got 6 2/3 scoreless innings from Carlos Rodon on Monday, Clarke Schmidt (0-1, 5.52) makes his fourth start following a shoulder injury. Schmidt was pushed back from his start on Saturday due to soreness in his left side.

Schmidt allowed eight runs over his first two starts before allowing his only run on a homer by Anthony Santander in five innings of one-hit ball against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 27.

The right-hander’s lone career start against the Padres occurred in San Diego on May 26, 2024, when he allowed two runs, one earned, in five innings and took the loss.

–Field Level Media