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| Self-Portrait, 2023. The New York Times called his work "...both conservative and iconoclastic, defying the dominant abstract schools of the mid-20th century." |
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| "David Hockney 2025, which opened at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris last year, was the largest ever exhibition of Hockney's paintings. NYTimes image via Getty. |
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| WORKS OF ART. Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller, San Diego Padres. Image by Pillartopost.org's F. Stop Fitzgerald. |
It was an important victory over the first-place team in the National League East. It was also a rare 2026 sighting: a Padres starting pitcher working seven complete innings and earning the win. Michael King, who had lost his previous four decisions, delivered seven scoreless innings. He allowed six hits, walked nobody and struck out five while throwing 93 pitches. Manny Machado supplied the game’s only run with a 418-foot home run in the fourth inning.
But what made this 77th game of the season memorable was the way it ended. It might not have been the Padres’ most exciting victory of the year, but if the bullpen performances of Adrián Morejón and Mason Miller were oil paintings, their combined effort would be the one you would hang in a Balboa Park art museum as an example of relief-pitching artistry.
Morejón took the eighth inning and retired the Braves in order, recording two strikeouts. The 27-year-old Cuban lefthander features a fastball that approaches 100 mph, accompanied by a devastating sweeping breaking ball. When he is locating both pitches, hitters have little chance.
Then came Miller. The righthander worked around a two-out single and walk before freezing Mike Yastrzemski with a called third strike to end the game. Miller recorded two strikeouts and earned his 21st save in 21 opportunities. One of his fastballs was clocked at 103 mph. Masterpiece work.
Morejón is demonstrating that he belongs in prime time. Miller, meanwhile, is displaying the sort of overpowering stuff that inspires Hall of Fame thoughts—even if it remains much too early to make reservations in Cooperstown.
Call them the Padres’ M&M treats. New manager Craig Stammen’s use of Morejón in the eighth and Miller in the ninth also reflects a willingness to adjust rather than manage according to an inflexible formula. Jason Adam, the regular eighth-inning reliever during the first part of the season, has not been as sharp lately. Moving him earlier in games allows Stammen to use Adam, Morejón and Miller according to matchups and availability rather than automatically assigning each pitcher a specific inning.
Whatever order they appear in, Adam, Morejón and Miller form one of baseball’s most imposing late-inning combinations. The Padres’ bullpen ranked second in the majors entering this difficult stretch of the schedule. Monday’s game also underscored the season-long uncertainty surrounding the starting rotation.
King was excellent (ended a personal four game losing streak), but performances like his have been too uncommon. Randy Vásquez, Griffin Canning and Lucas Giolito have provided little reason for confidence as July approaches.
San Diego’s starting staff recently ranked 26th in the majors in earned-run average. The offense has not offered much relief.
The Padres entered the Atlanta series batting approximately .218 as a team, near the bottom of Major League Baseball, and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position Monday. Machado’s solo home run had to stand up by itself.
Considering the unreliable starting pitching and the weakest-hitting lineup in baseball, it is a mild miracle that the Padres are 40-37 and only nine games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. That is what an elite bullpen can do. It can preserve a season while everyone else tries to figure things out.
Last night, King painted the first seven innings. Morejón and Miller applied the finishing strokes. Then the Padres hung a 1-0 masterpiece on the wall with more than 42,000 in attendance. --By Thomas Shess. PillartoPost.org writer.
