MILWAUKEE — Michael King gets the ball and throws the ball.

For almost the entirety of his 7 2/3 innings Wednesday, the Padres right-hander caught the throw from catcher Kyle Higashioka, heard a pitch call in his ear, stepped on the rubber and threw pitches that got bad swings and puzzled takes and weak contact.

There was not much time for the Brewers batters to think along with him, and he and Higashioka were using five pitches to spin a riddle the Brewers could not solve until the end.

Thing was, a gaggle of Brewers pitchers weren't having much damage done against them either.

And while he Padres never broke through against any of those five pitchers, the Brewers finally cobbled together a run against King and Wandy Peralta in the eighth inning for a 1-0 victory.

A single into right field by Willy Adames with two outs in the seventh inning — on a fastball a couple inches off the plate he reached out to poke the other way — was the Brewers' first hit.

The Padres' most disappointing inning of the season followed, as No. 8 hitter Matthew Batten's leadoff triple gave way to three weak outs that left the game in a scoreless tie.

King got the first out of the seventh, making Wednesday the longest of any of his 23 career starts, before Brice Turang singled to left field and stole second base a pitch before King recorded his final out of the day with a strikeout of Jackson Chourio.

After a career-high 109 pitches, King gave way to Peralta, who finished giving away a game the Padres' offense could never grab.

The decisive hit was a single through the left side by No.9 hitter Blake Perkins that brought home Turang.

©2024 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.