MILWAUKEE — Outside the lines, Michael King is as affable as it gets. The pitcher who steps on the mound on game day is anything but.

“Michael’s pretty locked in — he’s focused and intense,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “I tell him that the East Coast in him comes out on those days.”

The Padres will need East Coast King on Sunday.

His Game 2 start against the Milwaukee Brewers at hostile American Family Field will be just the second road appearance of his postseason career. The 31-year-old right-hander relishes playing the villain on the road as much as he loves playing the hero in his starts at a sold-out Petco Park.

“I think as a competitor, it’s just as exciting to hear your home fans cheer as it is to hear it silent in an opposing park,” King said. “That’s obviously the goal: to get momentum quick, play Padre baseball and stay on the attack.”

King has certainly done his part on the mound.

Tuesday’s gem in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series lowered his postseason ERA to 2.05, which includes striking out three in a scoreless frame last year at Wrigley Field in his only appearance on the road in a playoff game.

King has earned the win in all three of his postseason starts, although his wild-card starts were borderline historic compared to the five innings of five-run ball that he threw against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the 2024 NLDS.

King struck out 12 jet-lagged, worn-out Braves over seven shutout innings without a walk to start the 2024 postseason.

What he did on Tuesday rivaled that, given who he beat: Baseball’s best offense in the Cubs.

Not only did King strike out eight while spinning another seven shutout innings, he also allowed just one hit while etching another spot in the Padres’ record books.

King owns two of the Padres’ five-ever postseason games in which a starter turned in at least seven shutout innings. Kevin Brown threw two such gems en route to the 1998 World Series and Joe Musgrove threw the other to eliminate the Mets in New York in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series.

Only King and Musgrove completed such games while allowing just one hit, and King didn’t allow his hit until one out in the seventh inning.

An infield single by Nico Hoerner broke it up, but not before third baseman Manny Machado tracked it down to attempt what would have been a Hall-of-Fame throw.

Machado just couldn’t get a handle on the ball.

“I was pissed,” Machado said that night. “I knew what was on the line, so I wanted to make the play. … I know how important it is and obviously how well he was throwing the ball. Just trying to hopefully make it happen. I know it was going to be tough obviously with that lineup and that team over there, but it was in motion. So just trying to make that play.”

Stammen was rooting for Machado to make the play, too, even if it was going to complicate his calculus as he weighed King’s rising pitch count (97) against his chances to become the first pitcher to complete a no-hitter in a postseason game since Roy Halladay for the Phillies in October 2010.

“I wasn’t thinking about it at that point,” Stammen said. “His pitch count was starting to creep a little bit, and we’re focused on winning the game. The playoffs are a little bit different. You’ve got to try to win the game. But also there’s a piece of history that’s in there, too. If he would have kept his pitch count down, you know, probably the pitcher in me would have been, like, ‘We’re going to leave him out there until he gives a hit up.’

“But we’ll never know.”

King was certainly thinking about it.

Of course, he always knows exactly where he’s at in a game.

He’s just wired that way.

“I knew it in the bullpen before the game,” King said. “I think that if a pitcher tells you he doesn’t know that he’s got a no-hitter, perfect game or one of those things going on, then they’re lying to you. The goal every time out is to throw a perfect game. So if I give up a leadoff single, well there goes the perfect game.

“So I realized I hadn’t given up one of those for a while, so I was very aware of it.”