Padres find offensive spark, but momentum halted quickly

LOS ANGELES -- This time, the Padres got that clutch, late, two-out hit they needed. Ha-Seong Kim’s game-tying, two-run double was precisely the swing this San Diego offense has been searching for.

The frustrating part for the Padres? They still lost.

Half an inning later, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman launched back-to-back home runs off reliever Tim Hill. Those proved to be the difference in a 4-2 Dodgers victory on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. The loss dropped the Padres below .500 for the first time since April 27 -- and five games back of Los Angeles in the NL West.

“We get some positive energy and some momentum in our dugout, and a couple of their big boys went deep,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin.

All in all, Melvin said he was pleased with the offense’s energy on Friday. A day earlier, he’d called out his lineup’s lack of tenacity, searching for some measure of a spark. The Padres own the sport’s lowest batting average (.202) with runners in scoring position this season.

“We had good energy the entire game,” Melvin said. “[Dodgers starter Dustin May] was shoving pretty good there for a while, and then all of a sudden, we’re tied up. I thought we stayed with it well. Again, we had some opportunities in the eighth, had some good at-bats, just couldn’t follow it through. Just came up a little bit short.”

That eighth inning will haunt the Padres. After Betts and Freeman went deep, the Padres responded with consecutive hits from Nelson Cruz and Fernando Tatis Jr. They had the tying runs aboard for Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado and Juan Soto -- and they wouldn’t even get it to Soto.

Cronenworth struck out. Machado hit into a double play. The Padres were back where they started, wondering why that clutch hit just wouldn’t come.

“We had our big boys coming up in that inning, and we’ve got to live with that,” said Xander Bogaerts. “If the big boys don’t do it, you go to bed and come in tomorrow.”

It marked the second double play of the night for a struggling Machado, who finished 0-for-4. Melvin was quick to point out Machado’s high quality of contact lately -- and he isn’t wrong. But nearly a quarter of the way through the season, Machado’s OPS still sits below .700.

Nonetheless, the Padres had an avenue to escape the potential double play. Tatis is one of the sport’s top stolen-base threats, and with second base open, he could’ve put himself in scoring position as the tying run. Tatis was given something of a cautious green light.

“You don’t want to run into an out when you’re down by two runs there,” Melvin said. “He was trying to time [Dodgers relievers Caleb Ferguson and Evan Phillips] up. If [they were] slow to the plate, he probably would’ve gone. If not, we’ve got one of our big boys up.”

Left-hander Blake Snell was mostly sharp across six innings of two-run ball. He walked the first two hitters he faced in the third, and both came around to score. But Snell allowed little else on the night.

The Padres got Snell off the hook in the seventh. Bogaerts started a two-out rally with a laser double to center. Matt Carpenter followed by working a walk before Rougned Odor was summoned to pinch-run.

Kim worked a full count against May, then laced a double into the left-field corner. Odor slid into home just ahead of the tag, tying the game. The Padres' dugout erupted. They’d been waiting for a hit like that one.

And then, within moments, they were staring down another two-run deficit.

“We’re fighting,” Bogaerts said. “It’s a little hard when you come back in a game, the energy is right there, and just -- boom -- back to back. It’s a little tough. Hill has been really good for us the whole year.”

Melvin’s decision to call for Hill was a nuanced one. Right-hander Steven Wilson has emerged as the closest thing the Padres have to a seventh-inning guy. But he was unavailable Friday night. Nick Martinez was being saved to pitch the eighth.

That left Melvin with either the lefty Hill or righty Luis García. The Dodgers had righty-hitting Trayce Thompson due up, but a cadre of lefty weapons on their bench, including James Outman.

“We had some strength on the bench on the left side,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I think BoMel made a calculated decision to keep those guys on the bench.”

Hill retired Thompson, but the matchups with Betts and Freeman proved too tall a task. For the third time in as many games, the Padres bullpen had failed to preserve a tie or a lead late.