San Diego

Padres

King was diagnosed with a pinched nerve in his shoulder after the Padres claimed that he had just slept on his shoulder wrong. The 30-year-old has reported that there is “incremental improvement in his shoulder,” but Padres manager Mike Shildt said “‘Incremental’ would probably be in caps.” King expressed optimism “that he could return in weeks rather than months,” but the Padres themselves have cautioned that they won’t have a firm timeline until his nerve heals. That means there’s a chance we don’t see King back on the mound until July.

Darvish had a setback two weeks ago as he was working his way back from elbow inflammation. He threw just “six or seven” pitches in a bullpen yesterday with his velocity sitting in the mid-80s. His next bullpen session will ramp up with more pitches at a higher intensity, but he seems like he’s still a ways away.

Sheets crashed into the outfield wall while attempting to make a play on Adam Frazier’s home run ball in the fourth inning. Shildt noted that Sheets is currently dealing with a head contusion, sore hip and a jammed thumb/wrist and is still being evaluated. It seems likely that he’ll need to pass through the concussion protocol before returning to action, so that should be the injury that is monitored the closest. Fantasy managers who are relying on Sheets for the start of next week should be sure to have a contingency plan in place.

Machado opened the scoring in the ballgame with a 396-foot (106.2 mph EV) solo shot off of Andrew Heaney in the opening inning. The 32-year-old third baseman then delivered a go-ahead sacrifice fly during a four-run rally in the seventh inning that proved to be the difference in the ballgame. With his 1-for-3 night, Machado is now hitting a robust .308/.373/.488 with seven homers, 27 RBI and seven stolen bases (in nine attempts) through his first 57 contests.

Arraez lined a one-out double into left field off of Andrew Heaney in the sixth inning and came around to score on an RBI double off the bat of Jackson Merrill. He then chipped in an RBI single in the seventh inning that tied the game at 4-4. He has performed about as expected for the Padres this season, hitting .289/.321/.417 with three homers, 21 RBI and a pair of stolen bases through his first 222 plate appearances.

Suarez didn’t give the Pirates any sort of hope in the ninth inning as he got Endy Rodriguez on a fly ball to right and then struck out Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Oneil Cruz in succession to end the ballgame. He has been among the most dependable closers in all of baseball this season, converting 19 of his 21 save chances while posting a minuscule 2.13 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and a 28/8 K/BB ratio across 25 1/3 innings of work.

The 26-year-old hurler also walked three batters while striking out three in the unimpressive outing. Most of the damage done against him came via the long ball, as Andrew McCutchen crushed a two-run homer as part of a three-run uprising in the third inning and Adam Frazier added a solo shot in the fourth. Vásquez got six swings and misses on 78 pitches on the afternoon, posting a CSW of 26 percent. He’ll bring a deceptive 3.99 ERA, troublesome 1.47 WHIP and a miserable 35/30 K/BB ratio (58 2/3 innings) into Friday’s showdown against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Cease allowed seven hits, and the 29-year-old also issued a walk while throwing 59-of-95 pitches for strikes. The right-hander had done a much better job of getting deep into games for most of May, but his last two outings were much more in tune with his struggles of April. Cease will try to get June off to a good start while lowering his 4.66 ERA when he faces the Giants on Thursday.

Merrill singled in a run in the fourth, and a fielder’s choice that scored a run in the sixth gave San Diego a 3-2 lead and ultimately a win. The 22-year-old has driven in 21 runs in 2025 in just 39 games, and he’s slashing a healthy .331/.370/.525 in his sophomore campaign.

Suarez came in to pitch in the eighth after Jason Adam walked a pair, and the 34-year-old was able to clean up that mess and fired a clean nothing inning. He now has 18 saves, and his 2.22 ERA is not indicative of how good he’s been for the overwhelming majority of 2025. Not that a 2.22 ERA is terrible, of course. He’s just been better than that mark suggests.