Michael King Hopes to Make Surprise Heater a Regular Thing
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Michael King’s fastball hovered between 89 and 92 miles per hour when he was a starter at High-A in 2018. So when Albert Abreu, King’s teammate then and now, saw the converted reliever hit 100 miles per hour on Sunday, Abreu understandably asked, “What the hell?”
Abreu was not the only teammate who noticed King’s 100.3-mph four-seamer to Astros 3B Alex Bregman in the top of the 10th inning. The pitch, a personal best, took the 27-year-old by surprise in the moment and had him feeling giddy after the Yankees’ 6-3 win.
Now King would like to keep it 100.
“I would hope to make it a regular thing,” he said of his sudden jump in velocity. “I felt that I kind of stepped on a four-seam... and turned around and saw 100. That was the first three digits I've ever seen. It made my heart jump. I was like, 'Wait, I don't throw 100.' But it was cool."
King added that he expected to see 97 or 98 mph on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard, but the two zeroes left him smiling on the mound and in the locker room. Of course, his mood would not have been as joyful had it not been for the overall success of the outing.
Throwing in extras with the game tied at three, King worked around an error, a walk and two stolen bases. The free pass was issued to Bregman after the heater, but the righty left the bases loaded after inducing a fly out to left and a foul pop to first.
King’s frame included one strikeout and zero hits, and he held Houston at bay before Aaron Judge’s walk-off bomb ended the game in the bottom of the 10th. King lowered his ERA to 2.45 and earned his fifth win in the process, continuing what has been a stellar campaign.
"I felt like I was out there forever,” King said. “It was so hot. I wanted to have AC in the dugout, so it was definitely a lot of satisfaction."
King’s Baseball Savant page says his fastball averages 96.3-mph this season, but he also exceeded 98 and 99 mph on Sunday. He has come a long way from the high-80s and low-90s offerings that he had in the minors, and he believes he can keep making strides as he continues to excel in a relief role.
“Coming out of the bullpen, it's easier to just kind of max effort it,” King explained. “So I've kind of seen my velo steadily tick up a little bit. And then when you train faster, you start to actually do fast things. So because I'm trying to throw as hard as I can out of the bullpen, I feel like my velo continues to tick up a little bit.”
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