How good was Michael King on Tuesday night? Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Seven innings, one hit, no runs, no walks, and eight strikeouts against the highest-scoring offense in baseball. The Padres rolled the Cubs 8-0 in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.

The numbers back it up. His average start this year was almost six innings, two runs, and five strikeouts. Tuesday he gave them seven innings, one hit, zero runs, and eight strikeouts. He was throwing harder too. His fastballs averaged 96.5 mph in the first inning, and he threw nine pitches at 96 or faster. He threw 40 of those all regular season.

He leaned on the sweeper, too. It made up 19 percent of his pitches this season and 36 percent on Tuesday. Alex Bregman went down on strikes all three times he faced King, every one on a sweeper. The Cubs swung and missed on just over 40 percent of their swings, when hitters normally miss about a quarter of the time against him. They swung at just six of his 29 sinkers and took 13 for strikes. They did hit six balls 95 mph or harder. All six were outs. (Numbers per Statcast.)

He carried a no-hitter into the seventh until Nico Hoerner beat out a one-out dribbler down the third-base line. It was the longest postseason no-hit bid since Aníbal Sánchez in 2019. And Fernando Tatis Jr. gave him a lead before he even took the mound, hitting the first pitch of the game out. That’s the first leadoff homer in Padres postseason history.

Remember where King was a year ago, too. His 2025 was cut short by injury and he made just 15 starts. This year he made 32 starts, threw 185 innings and posted a 3.21 ERA. After the game he said, “Adrenaline is a crazy drug,” and you could see it. That’s an ace being an ace when it matters most. The Padres finished off the sweep on Wednesday and now it’s on to Milwaukee. Game 1 of the Division Series is tonight.