Michael King got the hugs out of the way on Friday and Saturday. The only familiar hitter in the Yankees’ lineup was Austin Wells, and King got the courtesy head nod out of the way while warming up in center field Sunday afternoon.

Aaron Judge got a head nod, too, after King swapped out his traditional warmup song (his sister’s “Messin’ With the King”) for the song the Yankees’ MVP is walking out to this year (“Hello” by Pop Smoke).

The courtesy for his old friends had to stop there.

“Today had to be business,” King said. “ … I don’t want to be too comfortable and happy and facing friends. I’d rather just compete.”

Which he did.

The 31-year-old right-hander ran his scoreless innings streak to 21â…” innings with six shutout innings in a 4-3 win over the Yankees. It was also his sixth straight quality start, continuing an upward trend as the Padres push toward a third straight postseason berth.

King struck out three, walked three and scattered four hits in outdueling mentor Gerrit Cole in a win that secured the team’s first series victory since Aug. 21-23 and kept the Padres a half-game behind the Diamondbacks in the chase for the NL’s third wild-card spot.

In that regard, the win — any win with just three weeks left to the regular season — mattered more than beating the team that traded him away a couple years ago for Juan Soto, even if it was his first against his old friends (King threw a quality start in a no-decision last year in New York).

“It wasn’t like a revenge game,” King said. “ … We knew this was going to be a test. We obviously want to win on our home turf, and coming in against an AL team that has a very good chance to be the AL champion, I think that we definitely put a little bit more pressure on ourselves to make sure that we’re going to continue to compete.”

With his teammates touching Cole for three straight homers to start the game, King’s only trouble on Sunday was the humidity on a day that reached 92 degrees, which, combined with his sweat, made it difficult to grip the baseball in the fifth inning.

Rookie George Lombard, the only right-handed hitter in the lineup, doubled with one out and King walked Wells and Ben Rice with two outs to load the bases and force left-hander Kyle Hart to start warming.

King noticed, and knew that Hart could come in for any of the lefties behind Rice.

“Get outs right now,” King said of his mindset after seeing the activity in the Padres’ bullpen, “because I don’t want (Padres manager Craig Stammen) to make that walk out.”

He didn’t and King got Cody Bellinger, via a sweeper on the outside edge, to fly out to right on the first pitch of his at-bat.

King worked around his sixth inning walk and exited after six innings (96 pitches, 54 strikes) with a sixth straight quality start.

His ERA during that run: 1.43.

“I’d say a month ago, I kept calling it trending, where I would have innings where I actually felt like I was back to myself,” King said. “So I think the last few have definitely been a result of the mechanical changes and confidence that I’ve got in my mechanics the last few weeks. So definitely a grind early, but figuring it out.”

He’s baaaaack

Nick Pivetta’s long-awaited return arrives on Monday as he’ll start the series opener against the Washington Nationals, his first start since exiting an April 12 game with flexor discomfort.

Pivetta threw a bullpen on Saturday after last striking out seven over 4â…“ shutout innings (64 pitches, 44 strikes) in a rehab game for Triple-A El Paso on Aug. 30.

“Nick told us that he was ready,” Stammen said with a laugh. “No, Nick was definitely a part of the conversation, but I think his last outing, seeing the fastball command that he had and the command of all his pitches. His curveball got a little bit better, got his pitch count up to a spot that we felt comfortable bringing him up to the big leagues and seeing what he has. And then this is his chance to kind of get started, and then we’ll go from there with what the plan is after that.”

Right-hander Randy Vásquez was available out of the bullpen on Sunday and instead of starting in his spot on Monday will be available to back up Pivetta, the team’s ace in 2025 with 13 wins, a 2.87 ERA, 181⅔ innings and 190 strikeouts.

Vásquez has a 2.68 ERA in 10 appearances since returning from his ankle contusion and has a 3.80 ERA in 22 starts this year and a 5.40 ERA in five relief appearances.

“(Vásquez) will be available to pitch tomorrow and going forward,” Stammen said. “And he’s a part of this equation too with Nick and how that works, and whether he’ll keep starting or whether he’ll come out of the bullpen.”

Notable

RF Fernando Tatis Jr.’s leadoff home run was his 20th of the season and punched his ticket to the 20-20 club alongside CF Jackson Merrill. The two are the only Padres teammates to record 20-20 seasons in the same season.
Rookie Ethan Salas started as the DH for the first time and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. The 20-year-old catcher is 0-for-8 with four strikeouts to start his big-league career.