SAN DIEGO — It can be difficult to appreciate a good pitchers’ duel if all it meant for your team in the end was that a tough start to the season offensively trudged on.
But a magnificent showing by two 36-year-old pitchers is exactly what went down Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.
Padres right-hander Yu Darvish and Brewers lefty Wade Miley both went seven innings, striking out 20 batters and allowing 10 baserunners between them.
The Padres had a runner at third base with less than two outs in both of the first two innings. They went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts and did not score.
They lost 1-0 because the Brewers did not fail in their one chance in that circumstance.
Darvish’s only fault Sunday was that he stepped off the mound one too many times and let a runner steal third base.
He got through his seven innings in 100 pitches, striking out 12 batters, his most since 2021. He allowed four singles, one of them hit harder than 70.8 mph.
The soft-throwing Miley, who never reached 91 mph with a pitch, was even more efficient.
Miley would have retired the final 10 batters he faced if not for a throwing error that allowed Austin Nola to reach base with two outs in the seventh. Miley took just one more pitch, his 89th of the day, to finish the inning on a Trent Grisham fly ball to center field.
It was the second time in three starts Miley threw at least six shutout innings.
Relievers Peter Strzelecki and Devin Williams set down the Padres in the final two innings, as they fell below .500 (8-9) for the third time this season.
The Padres dropped three of four to the Brewers, were shut out for the second time in their past seven games and went hitless (0-for-6) with runners in scoring position for the sixth time in 17 games this season.
With just another hit or two — or even a sacrifice fly or groundout — the Padres could have made the run Darvish allowed as inconsequential as it was unusual.
For the first time in this series, the Brewers did not score in the first inning.
In fact, they did not put a ball in play, as Darvish struck out the side on 10 pitches.
The Padres wasted singles by Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado to give them runners at the corners with no outs in the bottom of the first, as Juan Soto and Nelson Cruz struck out and Jake Cronenworth flied out to left field.
Darvish began the second inning by getting one out on one pitch.
A pitch later, things went awry and the Brewers capitalized in a way the Padres could not and in a manner Darvish had never had a run score before.
With the Padres shifted to the right against Garrett Mitchell, the left-handed hitter laid down a well-placed bunt to the left side on the first pitch he saw for a single.
With Brian Anderson up, Darvish was penalized for something he did not know he had done — disengaging from the rubber a third time and failing to throw out Mitchell on a pick-off attempt. Under the new rules of 2023, Mitchell was awarded second base. The violation came on his second pick-off attempt, and Darvish appeared confused, apparently not having been aware an earlier step off the rubber had been called a disengagement.
Three pitches later, Mitchell stole second base, and two pitches after that, Anderson lined a ball deep enough to left field that it easily drove in Mitchell to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.
The Padres had another prime chance in the second inning when Austin Nola grounded a double just inside the third base bag with one out and went to third on a wild pitch while Trent Grisham was batting. But Grisham and José Azocar struck out.
The Padres’ next runner on second base came with two outs in the ninth.
Soto led off with a walk against Williams. Two quick outs followed before Ha-Seong Kim grounded a single through the left side and Nola walked to load the bases. Grisham struck out looking to end the game.
