The Padres were down three runs on Friday when Yuki Matsui struck out a batter in the ninth inning to run his walk-less streak to nine appearances. The outing before, Matsui struck out two batters — including Shohei Ohtani — in the fifth inning of a down game.

The 28-year-old left-hander saved 236 games in a decade in Nippon Professional Baseball, but he understands he’s got work to do to get back into high-leverage spots.

Perhaps he’s on his way.

“I need to get more confidence from the team that I can pitch (late in games),” Matsui said through interpreter Yusuke Horii. “I’ve been happy with all the situations that I’ve been throwing in, but I need to get more confidence from the team so I can throw in more leverage situations.”

Yes, the new dynamic will make that difficult, as the arrival of All-Star left-hander Tanner Scott and right-hander Jason Adam is pushing the incumbents into games earlier.

That doesn’t mean Matsui isn’t pitching important innings, as he did on Tuesday in a scoreless fifth that helped the Padres erase a five-run deficit. That he hasn’t walked a batter in nine straight appearances after averaging 5.5 per nine innings through his first 40 appearances is all about ever-increasing comfort as he wades through his first big-league season.

And there was a lot for Matsui to get used to.

For starters, the culture is entirely different — even if he had Yu Darvish to lean on. The U.S. ball is also bigger with a smaller seam and the games are more frequent in Major League Baseball than in Japan.

To combat the latter, Matsui began the season with the intention of dialing back his pre-game throwing program. But after a particularly tough game in early June in Anaheim (0 IP,1 H, 2 BBs, 3 ER), conversations with pitching coach Ruben Niebla and Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller led Matsui to reintroduce long-tossing to match his pre-game preparation in Japan.