SAN DIEGO — Manny Machado and Yu Darvish had shorter days than expected or hoped.
It appeared the Padres would still have enough to beat the Diamondbacks on Tuesday afternoon before a chance at a fourth straight victory crumbled in the hands of two relievers.
The 8-6 Diamondbacks victory was achieved with seven unanswered runs, aggressive baserunning and a number of Padres blunders.
Xander Bogaerts hit his third home run of the season and extended his hitting streak to six games. Nelson Cruz converted an unexpected opportunity into his first Padres homer. The two blasts helped the Padres to a lead that would be 5-1 when Darvish departed after five innings.
The Diamondbacks comeback — with three runs in the sixth and three in the eighth — was explosive without them hitting anything more than a double.
The Padres, who won Monday’s game 5-4 with back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning, managed just one hit between the sixth and eighth innings before getting the tying run to the plate in the ninth when Trent Grisham homered and Juan Soto singled with two outs. Cruz struck out on three pitches from Drey Jameson to end the game.
Darvish, rusty following an unusual spring, was finished after throwing 91 pitches while walking four and hitting two batters.
Crismatt proceeded to allow three runs on two singles, two walks and a double, as the Diamondbacks got to 5-4.
Domingo Tapia worked a scoreless seventh before Luis Garcia gave up the lead and then put the Padres in a hole with his inability to command his pitches or hold runners.
Jake McCarthy led off the eighth with a single, stole second and went to third on a groundout to the right side by Alek Thomas.
With the infield in, Gerardo Perdomo laid down a bunt directly at first baseman Matt Carpenter, who appeared to come up too soon on what would have been an attempt to throw out McCarthy at home, leaving the ball on the ground instead.
Perdomo stole second base on the first pitch and scored the go-ahead run on Jose Herrera’s single. After Herrera went to second on an errant pick-off attempt by Garcia, Josh Rojas walked.
With Brent Honeywell having replaced Garcia, Ketel Marte singled to load the bases. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s sacrifice fly drove in Herrera and moved Rojas to third. On a 1-1 pitch, Marte took off for second base, drawing a throw from Nola that prompted Rojas to sprint home and slide in safely just ahead of the throw from Cronenworth.
That ended a day in which the drama began almost immediately.
Padres manager Bob Melvin was giving Machado what Melvin refers to as a “half-day off” by having him serve as designated hitter Tuesday. Machado essentially got the entire day down after being ejected for arguing an automatic strike call that finished off a strikeout for the third out of the first inning.
Machado was not alert to the pitcher with eight seconds remaining on the pitch clock and tried to call timeout. Home plate umpire Ron Kulpa assessed the strike. Without moving from the batter’s box, Machado engaged Kulpa in conversation before walking away and saying something ashe did that Kulpa deemed worthy of an ejection.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Jake Cronenworth doubled and scored on Austin Nola’s two-out single.
Cruz, who Melvin tapped to DH in place of Machado, led off the third with a home run on the first pitch he saw, and the Padres added on some smart baserunning and the help of an error.
Bogaerts followed Cruz’s blast with a single, went to second on a single by Cronenworth and to third on Matt Carpenter’s a fly ball out to right field. Nola then drew a walk, but Cronenworth had taken off running on the pitch and Diamondbacks catcher Jose Herrera’s throw to second was wide and sailed into center field. That allowed Bogaerts to run home to make it 3-0.
The Diamondbacks scored their run off Darvish in the fifth inning after Perdomo was hit by a pitch, went to third base on a single and scored on Rojas’ sacrifice fly.
Bogaerts gave the Padres a 5-1 lead by following a Juan Soto double and Cruz groundout with a home run to the seats beyond left field.
All those runs came off Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen, who still managed to make it through six innings on 83 pitches in his second start of the season.
Darvish, meanwhile, was making his first start.
The 36-year-old right-hander missed virtually the entirety of spring training while participating in the World Baseball Classic. He threw just six innings in three appearances for Japan, which meant he was not built up nearly enough to go five or six innings. He pitched in two minor-league games at the Padres’ complex, throwing 80 pitches over five innings in the second one.
The idea for Tuesday was that he would throw 90 pitches. The hope was that he would go six innings.
