SAN DIEGO -- Over the past month, as their once-healthy lead in the National League Wild Card race slowly evaporated, the Padres have endured their share of frustrating defeats. This one reached a new level.

And just like that -- after their emotions bubbled over in an excruciating 4-3 loss to the Phillies on Friday night at Petco Park -- it’s a brand new race for the second NL Wild Card, the Padres and Reds all square with 38 games to play.

• Box score

Following their brutal 1-6 road trip through Arizona and Colorado, the Padres hoped their return to Petco Park would provide a much-needed spark. Instead, it only served to bring their frustrations to the fore in a wild bottom of the eighth inning that saw manager Jayce Tingler and third baseman Manny Machado ejected by plate umpire Doug Eddings for arguing balls and strikes.

“We’re obviously frustrated with the zone,” Tingler said afterward. “We’re not going to swing outside the zone. We’re not doing it.”

Eddings’ calls irked the Padres dating back to last month in Miami, the last time they had him behind the plate. He ejected Tommy Pham and coach Skip Schumaker then.

Trailing by two runs in the eighth inning on Friday, San Diego loaded the bases for Fernando Tatis Jr. The Phillies countered by calling on closer Ian Kennedy for a four-out save. After a tense battle, Kennedy’s 2-2 fastball got away and plunked Tatis in the helmet. Tatis was OK and remained in the game.

That brought San Diego within a run, 4-3, and it brought Machado to the plate. He already had launched a laser of a home run in the third inning. Machado’s two-run drive off the top of the left field wall was the hardest-hit home run in the Majors this season, at 119.6 mph off his bat. It was the hardest-hit ball Statcast has ever tracked for a Padres hitter.

With the game on his bat five innings later, Machado fell behind 0-1 in the count, then looked at a pitch a couple inches off the outside corner. Strike two, Eddings said. Cue chaos.

Machado barked at Eddings, and Tingler was quick off the top step of the dugout, getting himself tossed, while preserving Machado. Two pitches later, Machado swung through strike three, ending the inning. After a deep breath, he turned to Eddings and unleashed. 

Machado was promptly ejected, but he continued his tirade for several moments, before throwing his batting gloves in Eddings’ direction as he left the field.

Asked what to make of his team’s issues with Eddings’ strike zone, Tingler refused to comment, though he noted: “I don't think there's anything personal, no, I do not.”

The Padres, who loaded the bases three times without scoring in any of those innings on Friday night, went quietly from there. Eric Hosmer, who reached base four times and made a pair of excellent scoops at first base, lined out to shortstop to end the game, marking San Diego’s fourth consecutive loss and eighth in nine games. 

“We’ve got to keep fighting,” said Padres left-hander Blake Snell, who allowed three runs over five innings. “The whole point of a losing streak is: What are you going to do to get out of it? What are you going to do to continue to find a way to win every game?”

And, suddenly, every game feels that important. They held a 6 1/2 game lead on Cincinnati less than a month ago, but suddenly the Padres share an identical 67-57 record with the Reds with barely over six weeks left to play. The way their season was trending for most of the first four months, it was difficult to envision the Padres fighting for their playoff lives come late August. But it’s been that kind of month. 

“It’s going to turn,” Tingler insisted. 

Said Snell: “We’ve just got to win tomorrow and then build off of that, and we should be pretty good. Honestly, I just believe our team is that talented. We’re going to find a way out of it. We’ve just got to get a big win tomorrow, and that could start something special.”

Maybe then Friday night would be remembered simply as a memorable nadir for the 2021 Padres. They’ve got 38 games to out-do the Reds and make it so.