Padres ace gets real on Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Salvador Perez's advantage over pitchers

It's never easy facing top hitters on the mound and San Diego Padres ace Michael King's 2025 season could see several such matchups against the LA Dodgers and their fearsome hitting trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

Having faced Ohtani and Betts on many occasions during the 2024 season after being traded by the Yankees to the Padres, King shared his thoughts on why both of them are such special hitters.

When discussing Ohtani, King praised the two-way superstar’s adaptability at the plate. He said (via Casa De Klub podcast):

"Ohtani’s hard because you’ll look at a full scouting report, his last 25 at-bats, or his last 100 at-bats, and you’ll see him swing and miss at a certain pitch. But then two games later, it’s a home run on that exact pitch in that exact location. So, you’ve got to look at the sequences, and it’s like, guys like him don’t really have holes. You just have to sequence properly and make sure you’re not on the same page as him." [31:12 onwards]

King finds similar attributes in Betts' hitting as well:

"Mookie’s a similar hitter too. If you get him out on a certain pitch or sequence, he’s not going to let you do it again," King added.

Another name Michael King pushed for as a difficult hitter to face was catcher Salvador Perez.

"When you’re facing someone like Salvy [Salvador Perez], you know he’s caught so many different sequences and pitchers," King said. "He can probably look at me and think, ‘Oh, this guy’s arsenal is similar to this other pitcher.’ I have no idea if he’s a guess hitter, but I know Higgy would say, ‘Yeah, he was sitting on this pitch because he knows this is a good sequence, and he set me up for this.’

"That’s the mental side of the game that makes baseball so much better than anything else."

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What is Michael King's record against Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts?

Michael King has reason to believe why Shohei Ohtani is the best hitter he has faced.

According to StatMuse, King has allowed six hits, three home runs and one walk to Ohtani. He has recorded three strikeouts against the two-way star thus far in his career.

Against Mookie Betts, King has allowed two hits, two home runs and two walks, while striking out once.

King would be hoping to improve upon the head-to-head matchup in the upcoming 2025 season, so as to give the Padres a chance to beat the Dodgers, when he's on the mound.