Padres lose to Giants, remain parked in reverse

Another game, another day of the Padres going backward while also staying in about the same place they’ve been for the past four weeks.

They fell 6-1 to the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

The Padres managed three hits and are batting a major league low .199 over their past 29 games. They have scored in five of their past 62 innings.

They are basically loitering.

They have lost five straight games, 12 of their past 18 and 21 of their past 29.

Yet, since falling out of playoff position on Aug. 22, the Padres have never been more than two games back in the National League wild-card race and have most of the time been within a game or tied for the final spot and even spent one day ahead by a half-game. They began Tuesday down a half-game to the Cincinnati Reds and tied with the St. Louis Cardinals The loss left them a half-game behind the Reds and a full game behind the Cardinals.

That’s because the Reds lost to the Pirates, their 13^th defeat in 19 games since they first moved ahead of the Padres on Aug. 22. The Cardinals were 4½ games back at that point and have gained the ground simply by being two games over .500 (11-9) since, including a 7-6 victory over the New York Mets in 11 innings Tuesday.

The Giants began Tuesday’s game the way a lot of Padres opponents have over the past month or so, by taking an early lead. And their run came the same way a lot of Padres opponents score, via a home run.

This one was hit in the second inning by Buster Posey on a change-up Jake Arrieta left up and in.

It was the 14^th time in their past 29 games that the Padres were trailing by the second inning.

They have allowed a home run in 27 of those 29 games and are 6-21 in the 27 games. They are 2-0 in the two games their opponent has not homered in that span.

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Posey’s blast was also the 18^th home run the Padres had allowed in 11 games this month. The Giants hit four homers in a 9-1 victory Monday. There has, in fact, not been a game in September the Padres have not allowed a least one home run. It is their second-longest such streak of the season, three shy of a 14-game streak that began Aug. 11.

Arrieta has allowed 24 home runs this season, though 21 of those were with the Chicago Cubs. That is sixth most in the National League and three fewer than Yu Darvish has allowed after the four he surrendered Monday. Just three NL pitchers have allowed more homers than Darvish. Emilio Pagán has allowed more homers (12) than any NL reliever, and Craig Stammen’s 11 are tied for second most.

The rest of the runs Tuesday were scored without anyone hitting a ball to the seats. That is not surprising on the Padres’ end. They have hit a major league-low 24 homers since Aug. 11.

The Padres tied the game 1-1 in the third when Jurickson Profar led off with a double, went to third on Arrieta’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a groundout by Trent Grisham.

The Padres, who got a two-out single from Adam Frazier in the second inning, got just one other hit the rest fo the night — a two-out double by pinch-hitter Jake Marisnick in the fifth inning.

The Giants, who clinched a playoff spot on Monday and entered Tuesday 2½ games ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West, took the lead back in the third and added a run in the fourth and seventh and two in the eighth.

With one out in the third inning, Posey lined a ball off Arrieta’s glove at 101.3 mph. Posey went to third on a single by LaMonte Wade Jr. and scored when Arrieta threw wide of first base on an attempt to merely get Wade back to the bag.

Arrieta hit Mike Yastrzemski to start the fourth, though it was Steven Duggar who came around to score after reaching on a fielder’s choice. After Duggar moved to second on pitcher Anthony DeSclafani’s sacrifice bunt, Tim Hill came in to face left-handed hitting Tommy La Stella, who hit the first pitch from Hill to center field to drive in Duggar.

Pierce Johnson, who pitched a perfect sixth inning, yielded a one-out single to Crawford in the seventh before being replaced by Daniel Hudson, who struck out Kris Bryant and then yielded a double to Ruf.

Closer Mark Melancon, who ostensibly needed the work, pitched in the eighth and allowed two runs on a walk, a double and an error.