SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Even for one of the best pitchers in baseball, there is nothing like input from one of the best hitters.
Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove credited Manny Machado with helping to smooth out his delivery after the two faced each other three times in a "B" game at the Padres’ Spring Training complex Saturday morning.
“Manny is the best,” Musgrove said. “He sees things really well. After my second inning, he came in and told me something that he was seeing -- the ball was cutting a little bit and he could see me opening up early.”
In his third at-bat, Machado took all four pitches he saw from Musgrove, who had made an adjustment.
“He was up there watching, just tracking for me,” Musgrove said. “He said it looked a lot better. I was hiding the ball better. It’s nice having him back there, a guy with that much experience and a good eye like that.”
Both Musgrove and presumptive No. 3 starter Michael King took a step forward on Saturday toward the Seoul Series.
King threw 51 pitches, the final 22 in the bullpen after an extremely efficient 29 pitches in three scoreless innings in the Padres’ 3-2 victory over the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium.
“Command of all my pitches feels great,” said King, whose two-seam fastball helped him get ahead in counts. “It’s just building up from here.”
King gave up two hits and struck out three while running his spring scoreless streak to five innings. He struck out Thairo Estrada looking on a back-door sinker after setting him up with a slider in the first inning, then got Wilmer Flores swinging on a four-seam fastball up to end the inning.
“Loved the demeanor, the presence, the stuff, in control,” manager Mike Shildt said.
Musgrove used his full repertoire during his 64-pitch outing, including a few sweepers that he is looking to incorporate this season. Robert Perez Jr. hit a two-run homer off Musgrove with two outs in the second, after Machado led off with a walk.
The liberal format in the "B" game was designed to get Musgrove enough work, and pitching coach Ruben Niebla seemed to delight in calling out, “One more, Joe,” as the game progressed. Musgrove got four outs in a 24-pitch second inning and six outs in a 24-pitch third.
“I feel like I had to kind of backtrack things a little bit to get back to where I needed to be,” said Musgrove, who had given up eight runs in 1 2/3 innings in two previous Cactus League starts.
"I feel like I’ve always been somebody who finds my stuff and sharpens up as games go and as the season goes. The more game reps, I feel like that’s when I make my best adjustments. A little longer outing, a chance to have a couple of up-downs and really feeling what I am doing. I felt really good where I was at.”
Musgrove and Yu Darvish are expected to be the two starters for the regular-season games in Korea, although the rotation has not been set. The Padres also play exhibition games in Seoul on March 17-18.
Musgrove figures to have two more appearances in Arizona before the regular-season opens with the Seoul Series, and he said he expected to be able to go five or six innings in his game there.
“For me now it is just building up my count,” Musgrove said. “By the end of the outing, all of it felt pretty good, to be honest. I felt a lot better with the curveball, location-wise and execution, which I had been really poor in the first two outings.”
Musgrove got six outs on strikeouts, including one against Machado on a 3-2 fastball in the first inning. He said he is still learning to find the best release point for his sweeper, which has quite a bit more horizontal break that a traditional slider.
“It’s still a slider, it’s just a little different grip on it,” Musgrove said. “Saw good results with both. I think certain hitters will tell us when we need to throw the sweeper. Some hitters, it will be better to throw my traditional slider. I’d like to have both options available, just keep touching on both of them to have both of them sharp.”