San Diego drops three of four to first-place Los Angeles, but Sunday rally offers a jolt of momentum heading home

LOS ANGELES — The Padres left Chavez Ravine this weekend with more bruises than they came in with, but at least they left with one win to show for it.

San Diego dropped three of four games to the Dodgers in a four-game set at Dodger Stadium that swung from gut-punch to gut-punch before the Padres finally found their footing Sunday, snapping an eight-game losing streak — their longest skid since 2013 — with a 5-2 victory that spoiled a potential sweep for the runaway NL West leaders.

[PHOTO: Padres celebrating Sunday’s win / Petco Park exterior]

A Six-Run Lead Vanishes

The series opener Thursday night looked like exactly the kind of statement win San Diego needed. Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Jake Cronenworth all went deep in the first two innings, staking Roki Sasaki and the Padres to a 6-0 cushion. Instead, it became the latest cautionary tale in a rough stretch for San Diego’s pitching staff.

Sasaki unraveled, allowing six runs and three home runs over three innings, and the Dodgers’ bullpen shut the door the rest of the way. Dalton Rushing tied career highs with four hits and four RBI, and Los Angeles reeled off 12 consecutive runs to escape with a 12-7 win — the Dodgers’ biggest comeback victory since erasing a six-run deficit against St. Louis in 2022. Kyle Tucker chipped in four hits of his own, and Will Klein worked two scoreless innings for the win.

For the Padres, it was a sixth straight loss and an all-too-familiar feeling: a big early lead, gone by the final pitch.

Grand Slam Sinks San Diego Again

Friday brought a different flavor of heartbreak. Michael King carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning and held the Dodgers to three baserunners through six, staking San Diego to a 3-0 lead behind a Jackson Merrill home run. Shohei Ohtani matched him for much of the night, working through traffic to keep Los Angeles within striking distance.

Then came the seventh. Mookie Betts drew a leadoff walk, Max Muncy singled to knock King from the game, and a potential inning-ending double-play ball skipped off the glove of second baseman Jake Cronenworth, loading the bases with nobody out. Teoscar Hernández, back from a month on the injured list with a hamstring strain, turned on a first-pitch slider from reliever Adrián Morejón and sent it 419 feet into the left-center field pavilion for a go-ahead grand slam.

“I’m just trying to find the same swing that I had before I got hurt,” Hernández said afterward.

The Dodgers held on for a 4-3 win, their second straight comeback of the series, extending the Padres’ skid to seven games and pushing Los Angeles’ division lead to a season-high margin.

Yamamoto Overpowers, Streak Hits Eight

Saturday offered little relief. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing just three hits, and Freddie Freeman drove in two runs — including a home run — as the Dodgers cruised to a 3-0 win. San Diego starter Griffin Canning battled, allowing just one run over four innings, but the offense could never solve Yamamoto, who improved to 9-5 and beat the Padres for the second time in eight days.

The loss was San Diego’s eighth in a row, its longest losing streak since a 10-game skid in 2013, and dropped the Padres to 7-2 in the season series against their rivals to the north.

Machado, Sears and Miller Snap the Streak

Sunday finally brought a turnaround — and it came with some extraordinary circumstances surrounding it. Dodgers catcher Eliézer Alfonzo made his major league debut in the finale just hours after reports surfaced that his sister and stepmother had been confirmed among the victims of last month’s earthquakes in Venezuela. Shohei Ohtani, playing on his 32nd birthday, added an RBI single for Los Angeles.

But the day belonged to San Diego. Manny Machado crushed a three-run homer, and Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatís Jr. each added RBI singles to back a strong outing from left-hander JP Sears, who tossed five scoreless innings of one-hit ball. Mason Miller, fresh off his first All-Star selection, closed it out for his 22nd save — his first since June 22 amid the team’s slump — as the Padres held on for a 5-2 win in front of 46,506 fans at Dodger Stadium.

The victory was just San Diego’s second in its last 13 games at Dodger Stadium and ended the longest losing streak the franchise had endured in more than a decade.

Looking Ahead

The split leaves the Padres well back of the Dodgers in the NL West, but Sunday’s win offers something to build on as San Diego heads home to open a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Walker Buehler set to take the mound at Petco Park. For a team that has weathered one of its toughest stretches in years, simply stopping the bleeding may be the first step toward turning the second half around.