Manny Machado homered Monday night and Michael King fired seven scoreless innings as the San Diego Padres blanked the visiting Atlanta Braves 1-0.
King (5-6) allowed six hits and walked none while fanning five in his first win since May 18, when he earned a 1-0 decision over the Los Angeles Dodgers. King, who lost his last four decisions, threw 62 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Adrian Morejon worked a 1-2-3 eighth and Mason Miller worked around two-out trouble in the ninth to log his 21st save in as many chances. Ausin Riley singled and Dominic Smith walked but Mike Yastrzemski looked at a third strike to end it.
Grant Holmes (4-4) gave up three hits and the game’s only run in 4 2/3 innings, walking five and striking out four. Atlanta’s bullpen twirled 3 1/3 scoreless innings but it wasn’t enough to prevent its eighth loss in 11 games.
The only mistake Holmes made cost him. He hung a 1-2 slider to Machado in the bottom of the fourth and Machado smoked his 14th homer of the year to center, the ball traveling an estimated 418 feet into the San Diego bullpen.
The Braves had their chances to break through against King but couldn’t come up with a key hit. In the second, Michael Harris II and Riley led off with singles. But King used a pair of grounders and a lineout to escape the jam.
Matt Olson singled with one out in the sixth and reached third on Ozzie Albies’ groundout, followed by a throwing error by first baseman Ty France as he tried to double Olson at second. However, Harris grounded out to strand Olson.
The Padres missed on some opportunities to further dent the scoreboard, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine men. They put two on with an out in the second but Rodolfo Duran grounded into a double play.
Duran struck out to strand runners at the corners in the fourth. In the eighth, Machado led off with a double and Xander Bogaerts walked with two outs but pinch-hitter Jase Bowen whiffed.
Riley collected a game-high three hits.
