Padres return to Petco with NLDS win in sight

Driving the news: Michael King starts for the Padres, one week after he threw seven masterful innings with 12 strikeouts and zero runs allowed against the Braves in the Wild Card Series.

• He'll face Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, who pitched to an underwhelming 5.38 ERA over 75 innings this year.
• The Padres offense will look to pick up where they left off Sunday, when their six home runs tied a single-game MLB postseason record.

State of play: Fernando Tatis Jr. is scorching hot in these playoffs, and across the postseason in his career.

• His 3-4, two home run performance Sunday brought his 2024 postseason batting line to 9-14 with three home runs, two doubles, three walks and zero strikeouts.
• For his career, he now has the highest batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage for any player with at least 10 career playoff games.
• Dodgers star Mookie Betts, by comparison, is 3-44 in his last 12 playoff games.

If you go: Tickets are sold out, even after the Padres blocked people in Los Angeles from buying tickets; but the get-in-the-door price at StubHub was about $186 after fees.

• The game starts at 6:08pm and is aired on FS1.