The San Diego Padres rallied back to tie the game in the ninth inning but couldn’t muster another rally in extra innings for a loss to division rival Dodgers on Tuesday at Petco Park.
Eric Hosmer got his first homer as a Padre at the bottom of the night to wake up San Diego’s sleepy offense to make 3-2. That was followed by a Christian Villanueva’s deep drive that would have tied the game had it not been picked off by Dodgers center fielder Chris Taylor’s leaping grab in front of the wall.
After Franch Cordero stole second base and was balked to third, Chase Headley, who was in a 1-for-26 slump — his worse in his 12-year career, laced a pitch to the right-field corner for an RBI double to drive in Cordero for the tie.
“For somebody that’s obviously scuffled so far this year, I thought the at-bat was outstanding,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “Game on the line, a battle, to get the double, that’s a tough at-bat against a really good pitcher. We had some really good at-bats that inning. We’re still searching for that last big hit.”
The Padres, after stretching it to 12 innings, gave up four runs in the 7-3 loss.
“To get two off of Kenley (Jansen) says a lot for a team, for an offense,” Hosmer said. “We just couldn’t come up with the big one in the end, and against teams like this, you can’t miss on those opportunities.”
Jansen is the National League’s top closer.
Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal broke the stalemate at the top of the 12th with a two-run double off reliever Tyler Webb, who was recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday. Kyle Farmer did the same to Kazuhisa Makita for the 4-point lead.
The Friars couldn’t pull off another rally at the bottom of the 12th when Corey Spangenberg struck out, which was followed by a Jose Pirella line out. After Freddy Galvis singled, Hosmer was also struck out. In all, the Padres were struck out 20 times — a season high.
“It’s a tough loss, there’s no other way around it,” Green said. “You don’t win many baseball games when you punch out 20 times. You put balls in play, you’ve got a chance to win a baseball game. They did that; we didn’t.”
The most costly strikeouts for the Padres were in the 10th inning where the Padres had the chance to put the game away. After the bases were loaded, Hunter Renfro was struck by reliever Josh Stripling. Villanueva was next up and also struck out.
“It definitely sucks,” Renfroe said. “Really disappointed in myself, I let the team down. That should’ve been it. It should’ve been done right there. We should’ve been in here partying.”
Right-hander Luis Perdomo returns Wednesday, after serving his one-game suspension for the bench-clearing brawl last week, to close out the series against the Dodgers. Pitching for Los Angeles will be Kenta Maeda.
